Hey all!
So if you're even still checking for updates (because it has been over two months now) I thought we should let you know the latest... namely that Steve and I are back in the US of A.
The next great adventure for the Spanglers? The 9:00-5:00 job. After a year and a half of traveling, experiencing, and working together, it's time to find full time jobs and get a place of our own. We're excited to get out all of our wedding presents and actually use them! We've tried our hardest to forget what we were given so that it will kind of be like Christmas when we open them the second time.
If you have a job opportunity that you think would be perfect for one of us, don't hesitate to let us know (haha, only half kidding...)! If you just want to talk to one of us then get in touch by e-mail or Facebook and we can let you know our phone numbers.
We apologize for the long absence in posting. I don't think Steve will ever be a blogger, but we'll see if I decide that anything in our lives is important enough to post on the world wide web and maybe I'll update this thing occasionally.
For now, we love you and look forward to catching up with everyone. Hope that you have all had a wonderful summer!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Foreigners
The other day I was eating my 香辣鸡片儿 (xiang1 la4 ji1 pianr1) during a short lunch break on an otherwise long Saturday, generally enjoying the fine, oily, crispy greatness of it all (crispy fried chicken slices with hot red peppers, carrots, and spicy green pepper.. mmmm). Well, not so much enjoying as devouring... I quickly swallowed most of it, being quite hungry after teaching two classes on an empty stomach. Upon nearing the end of the heavenly dish, I gently set aside a carrot to uncover one of the last green peppers.... only to find a large silver thumbtack. You know, the kind your kindergarten teacher used to use to pin your stick figure art to the bulletin board. And there it sat, piercing the delicious skin of the final pepper, daring me to continue. More than anything, I was disappointed that I couldn't eat the last few bites of my meal. But to inspire some office conversation I proclaimed, "Huh. Look at that. A thumbtack. Right there in my xiang la (we abbrev. our Chinese to sound cool and knowledgeable when in the office). See?" Whereupon I proffered my dish at the others so that they could have a look see.
I was instantly implored to take it to the front desk and have them call the restaurant. This was unacceptable! A thumbtack??! Get your free lunch! Give that restaurant hell! Make sure it doesn't happen again! Typical reaction, right? Well I have to say, I just didn't care. Stuff happens. Things fall into food. Whatever. I was able to eat most of my lunch before discovering it, and nothing was harmed. I suppose the big deal here was that I could have been greatly harmed; had I chomped down on that thumbtack rather than discovering it by sight this whole story would be very different. But that's not what happened, so I couldn't bring myself to be bothered. In the end, another teacher took it to the front desk and asked them to do something about it. This resulted in profuse apology to me from the Chinese staff and seeming outrage from the school janitor who assured me that the restaurant has been called and dealt with. Something in my manner seemed very surprising to them, however, when I just shrugged it all off, offered my thanks and told them it was no big deal. "Really, don't worry about it! It's OK. What can the restaurant do? How do you take measures to prevent thumbtacks from falling into food?" I said. They looked at me open mouthed and shook their heads at my unconcern as they left the teacher's office.
At the time I figured they were thinking, "Crazy foreigner! How can you not care about something like that?" as they shook their heads. But I was later forced to admit that their surprise might have come from a different thought process. Namely, "All other foreigners would have thrown a fit about this... your actions surprise us because we were led to believe foreigners would scream and yell in this sort of situation and you did not."
Now here's where I have to make a huge confession. Something that has always been hidden inside me and that I've never really liked about myself.... I'm terrible at traveling/ being a traveler. You know why? Because I always like to be in control and appear as if I know what's going on. I don't like asking for directions or appearing as if I need help. I don't like taking pictures lest people will think I'm a tourist. I have this awful pride that often prevents me from truly enjoying myself, because I don't want other people to think something is new to me. And that's bad. And it really doesn't fit with the intrepid and adventurous spirit that I like to think of myself as having. I'm slowly learning to relax and let go and let myself look clueless. Because sometimes that's OK. And in China, I really just can't blend in... no matter how hard I try.
Whew... big load off my shoulders. But even with that out there, I still believe that there is something to be said for trying to blend in to a culture not your own. A month or more ago, Steve and I stopped by Hamamas (pictured and described in our photo album) to grab some Western grub. There was an older, larger, white gentleman there with a Chinese woman friend. He was speaking slowly to her about many things, trying to educate her in Western ways and possibly giving her an English lesson. From what we overheard, this man was American and he had lived in China for a while at least. In fact, he had just returned to China after a visit home to America. His manner and conversation topics were somewhat annoying to Steve and I, who couldn't help but listen to his loudly stated opinions. But what really made us hang our heads and be ashamed to be white/American/Western was when this man's bacon was delivered to him. He was angered that it wasn't cooked to a crisp, and apparently he had discussed this with the staff before. In fact, he kept asking them if they remembered him, and sounded quite shocked to find that they didn't. But anyway, he proceeded to tell the waitress, "This bacon is not cooked enough. ALL AMERICANS will tell you the same. I want it cooked more and in the future remember that ALL AMERICANS will not accept this." Now.... first off, Steve and I love the bacon and how it's cooked there. Second... NEVER make blanket statements about your country. UGH! Thanks a lot man... now the waitresses think that ALL AMERICANS are jerks and ingrates. Great ambassadorial work there, man.
And that's the sort of thing that makes me revert to the other end of the spectrum. I just try to blend in, be appreciative, and avoid situations that require confrontation. And there are times when this approach is inappropriate or causes me to miss out on something that might have been cool, but I have constant fear of being that foreigner who forever shapes the opinion of a Chinese person. Because the fact is that they may only ever see a handful of foreigners and maybe only interact with one or two of those. We are constantly on display and in a position to be criticized or looked down upon. Like it or not, our one meeting with a Chinese person may form their lifetime opinion of Americans. So I hate it when I see foreigners take the attitude of, "It's not my country and no one will care here. They can't speak English, so what are they going to say to me?" Well they CAN speak Chinese, and they can say plenty ABOUT you to their friends and family.
I hear students tell me their impressions about Americans and Westerners all the time. Usually it's somewhat filtered and they only tell me the good things. But from the news stories that their government allows them to see and from the one or two Americans they've ever encountered on the street, in general their impression of us is not great. They think we all carry hand guns and fire them into the air just for fun. My co-worker admitted to me that she thinks America is very dangerous. They think we all party constantly, because that's what the kids on the OC and most of the foreign teachers do. One student swore to me this weekend that you had to get a license to wear high heels in America. When I tried to tell him this wasn't true he would not believe me because he had read an article about it.
But this conversation always gets turned around. Students always want to know what I thought of China before I came. And honestly, I don't remember. I just spent my 23rd birthday in China, and the first time I was here I spent my 19th birthday. In between I did a lot of study on Chinese history, society and culture. So my opinion has been greatly changed and shaped. I try to stop and think what other Americans think about China. So tell me, what do you think? How do you picture it? Do you think of dragons and silk dresses and monkeys and open air markets? Do you think of bicycles and rickshaws? Do you think of opressive government and undying nationalism? Has your opinion been formed by one Chinese person that you met or saw? Do you think of tourists with cameras around their necks at Disneyworld? Or do you think, "I've never been there. I don't really know what to think."??
I really would like to know. Honest thoughts and opinions on China that have not been influenced by any of my posts? I'd love to see your comments.
-Jaclyn
I was instantly implored to take it to the front desk and have them call the restaurant. This was unacceptable! A thumbtack??! Get your free lunch! Give that restaurant hell! Make sure it doesn't happen again! Typical reaction, right? Well I have to say, I just didn't care. Stuff happens. Things fall into food. Whatever. I was able to eat most of my lunch before discovering it, and nothing was harmed. I suppose the big deal here was that I could have been greatly harmed; had I chomped down on that thumbtack rather than discovering it by sight this whole story would be very different. But that's not what happened, so I couldn't bring myself to be bothered. In the end, another teacher took it to the front desk and asked them to do something about it. This resulted in profuse apology to me from the Chinese staff and seeming outrage from the school janitor who assured me that the restaurant has been called and dealt with. Something in my manner seemed very surprising to them, however, when I just shrugged it all off, offered my thanks and told them it was no big deal. "Really, don't worry about it! It's OK. What can the restaurant do? How do you take measures to prevent thumbtacks from falling into food?" I said. They looked at me open mouthed and shook their heads at my unconcern as they left the teacher's office.
At the time I figured they were thinking, "Crazy foreigner! How can you not care about something like that?" as they shook their heads. But I was later forced to admit that their surprise might have come from a different thought process. Namely, "All other foreigners would have thrown a fit about this... your actions surprise us because we were led to believe foreigners would scream and yell in this sort of situation and you did not."
Now here's where I have to make a huge confession. Something that has always been hidden inside me and that I've never really liked about myself.... I'm terrible at traveling/ being a traveler. You know why? Because I always like to be in control and appear as if I know what's going on. I don't like asking for directions or appearing as if I need help. I don't like taking pictures lest people will think I'm a tourist. I have this awful pride that often prevents me from truly enjoying myself, because I don't want other people to think something is new to me. And that's bad. And it really doesn't fit with the intrepid and adventurous spirit that I like to think of myself as having. I'm slowly learning to relax and let go and let myself look clueless. Because sometimes that's OK. And in China, I really just can't blend in... no matter how hard I try.
Whew... big load off my shoulders. But even with that out there, I still believe that there is something to be said for trying to blend in to a culture not your own. A month or more ago, Steve and I stopped by Hamamas (pictured and described in our photo album) to grab some Western grub. There was an older, larger, white gentleman there with a Chinese woman friend. He was speaking slowly to her about many things, trying to educate her in Western ways and possibly giving her an English lesson. From what we overheard, this man was American and he had lived in China for a while at least. In fact, he had just returned to China after a visit home to America. His manner and conversation topics were somewhat annoying to Steve and I, who couldn't help but listen to his loudly stated opinions. But what really made us hang our heads and be ashamed to be white/American/Western was when this man's bacon was delivered to him. He was angered that it wasn't cooked to a crisp, and apparently he had discussed this with the staff before. In fact, he kept asking them if they remembered him, and sounded quite shocked to find that they didn't. But anyway, he proceeded to tell the waitress, "This bacon is not cooked enough. ALL AMERICANS will tell you the same. I want it cooked more and in the future remember that ALL AMERICANS will not accept this." Now.... first off, Steve and I love the bacon and how it's cooked there. Second... NEVER make blanket statements about your country. UGH! Thanks a lot man... now the waitresses think that ALL AMERICANS are jerks and ingrates. Great ambassadorial work there, man.
And that's the sort of thing that makes me revert to the other end of the spectrum. I just try to blend in, be appreciative, and avoid situations that require confrontation. And there are times when this approach is inappropriate or causes me to miss out on something that might have been cool, but I have constant fear of being that foreigner who forever shapes the opinion of a Chinese person. Because the fact is that they may only ever see a handful of foreigners and maybe only interact with one or two of those. We are constantly on display and in a position to be criticized or looked down upon. Like it or not, our one meeting with a Chinese person may form their lifetime opinion of Americans. So I hate it when I see foreigners take the attitude of, "It's not my country and no one will care here. They can't speak English, so what are they going to say to me?" Well they CAN speak Chinese, and they can say plenty ABOUT you to their friends and family.
I hear students tell me their impressions about Americans and Westerners all the time. Usually it's somewhat filtered and they only tell me the good things. But from the news stories that their government allows them to see and from the one or two Americans they've ever encountered on the street, in general their impression of us is not great. They think we all carry hand guns and fire them into the air just for fun. My co-worker admitted to me that she thinks America is very dangerous. They think we all party constantly, because that's what the kids on the OC and most of the foreign teachers do. One student swore to me this weekend that you had to get a license to wear high heels in America. When I tried to tell him this wasn't true he would not believe me because he had read an article about it.
But this conversation always gets turned around. Students always want to know what I thought of China before I came. And honestly, I don't remember. I just spent my 23rd birthday in China, and the first time I was here I spent my 19th birthday. In between I did a lot of study on Chinese history, society and culture. So my opinion has been greatly changed and shaped. I try to stop and think what other Americans think about China. So tell me, what do you think? How do you picture it? Do you think of dragons and silk dresses and monkeys and open air markets? Do you think of bicycles and rickshaws? Do you think of opressive government and undying nationalism? Has your opinion been formed by one Chinese person that you met or saw? Do you think of tourists with cameras around their necks at Disneyworld? Or do you think, "I've never been there. I don't really know what to think."??
I really would like to know. Honest thoughts and opinions on China that have not been influenced by any of my posts? I'd love to see your comments.
-Jaclyn
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Just some thoughts
Hey all,
I added some pictures to the Harbin and Apartment albums and also posted one of our staff trip to Crazy Lake. Check them out and see if you can figure out what the door to the left is.
It is interesting to be here 20 years after a major event and not be able to talk about it with any Chinese person that I know... mainly because they don't know about it. Not sure what I'm talking about? Check out some of these essays: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/opinion/31tiananmen.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
Every time that I've been to China, I've been struck by the contradictory nature of their society. It is often difficult to explain my observations of Chinese people and culture because there are usually two seemingly conflicting sides to every issue. For example, citizens feel little or no obligation to clean up public areas such as their stairwells or litter on the streets, but if you walk in to their houses or offices you will be struck by the attention and care given to cleanliness. Further, most pursuits in daily life are somewhat selfish: when crossing the street, driving a car, boarding a bus, or waiting in "line", Chinese people tend to put 'me' first. I must get from this side of the street to that one, no matter how many accidents I almost cause. I must get on the bus first in case there is a seat for me. I must merge into that lane of traffic... too bad if I cut off 4 other bustling lanes. And when looking at the big picture, one begins to forgive and understand that this selfish attitude is out of necessity in order to claw one's way through the ranks of 1.3 billion others. However, one of the most notable, and oft cited, differences between Chinese and American culture is China's orientation toward groups and group work and America's tendency toward individualism and independence. So I have to wonder, how is it that this group mindedness can coexist with a selfish nature? The truth is, Chinese people will go out of their way to help or host a friend or family member... they just might push a few people out of their way when buying the cherries for the party.
That is the frustrating nature of the society. China is a culture that has always revered and honored revolutionaries who went against the rest of the society to accomplish a goal and make things better for the Chinese people. At the same time, they continue to suppress new ideas and revolutionary types, and often have in the past. See? Contradiction. It seems that only in hindsight is this sort of forward thinking and action good. It makes me sad to see a nation of youth who don't fully understand their nation's history or its possible future... sad that I can't even talk about it with them, not only because I might get kicked out of the country but also because they wouldn't understand what I was talking about. They would just label me as another arrogant Westerner that didn't really understand China. And they'd be mostly right. I could never hope to understand everything about their culture and society, especially with just a few years of study and a year of first hand experience. But I know that this country is a nation full of lovely people and there is more out there for them. I don't mean western, materialistic things. I mean a purpose or a cause. A society with no religion is an interesting one indeed.
In their pursuit to be like us, they've taken a liking to our expensive, famous brands and our unhealthy fast food chains. Every person under the age of 40, and some over, that I talked to before the Dragon Boat Festival admitted that they didn't know how to make the traditional food for the festival, a type of rice dumpling called zongzi. No, their mother couldn't make zongzi either. Their grandma? Yeah, she could make them. When I asked what this meant for 20 years from now, they shrugged and said it didn't matter because you could buy zongzi at the supermarket. Even with all of this western influence, I still cause near accidents every day simply by walking down the street. I garner cat calls and "Hellos!" just for being white. They love me and want to help me, while at the same time they don't trust me or respect me. Contradiction.
Perhaps it is living in this society that has done it to me, but I love China and I hate China. I love the people. I love the traditions. I love the food and I love the challenge of crossing a street. I don't like people staring at me... I don't like the people talking about me when they think I can't understand. I don't like the food... don't you people eat large chunks of meat? I hate the traffic... can't you see that there are ways to do this better? I love the Sunshine Chinese staff. I love the feel of a Chinese city. I hate the litter... I hate that people so carelessly toss it out of bus windows or throw it at your feet as you're walking by. I love the genuine warmth of a Chinese stranger. I love the importance that is placed on education... I don't like the the education system. It's great to see people take pride in their appearance and dress smartly. I don't like when their critical eyes inevitably turn to my artfully worn and holey shoes. I love riding on Chinese buses and I love it when my students run to hug me and shout my name in glee. A full Chinese bus is the most uncomfortable place a Westerner could find themselves. I hate when that student who shouts, "Jaclyn!" and beams at me during break deliberately disobeys me and doesn't pay attention in class minutes later. Taxi drivers will honk at you and try to pick you up just because you're foreign... Taxi drivers will blow past you or ignore you just because you're foreign. Neither is desirable. A day in China is lovely or disagreeable. Exciting and adventurous or difficult at best. You love it and you wish to leave it. A true battle of the senses.
Switching tracks entirely....
Steve and I went to the Xuefu bookstore again yesterday. We hadn't been since Harbin was an icy wonderland, and I didn't recognize any of it! Steve kept saying things like, "Oh yeah, there's the building with the curvy roof," and I was sure I'd never seen the building with a curvy roof in all my years. It also doesn't help that they are building a subway in Harbin and many of the roads are barricaded with blue fences, as was the case in this part of town. So for me, everything seemed new and interesting. We had a look through the bookstore and then strolled through the surrounding area. This particular area is home to two of the large universities in town, and we saw a student dressed in cap in gown having his friend take some pictures of him around his campus. There were also lots of street stalls offering 'fast food' and wares being proffered everywhere you looked. I had bought several books in the book store (Northanger Abbey, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Vol. 1, and Out of Africa... only the classics are offered because they are for students of English) and my shoulder was beginning to resent the fact that we'd gone to the bookstore before walking the streets, so we took a bus home. But first, we noticed a sign advertising chocolate donuts! That's right.. chocolate donuts! It was a fast food chain specializing in fried chicken called Dicos ( a Chinese version of KFC ). We weren't at all hungry, since we had eaten a large lunch, but we grabbed some chocolate donuts to go and ate them this morning for breakfast. Not too bad!
For now, Steve has gone to teach his 1:00 o'clock class and then has a long break before his 5:30. I'm waiting for my 4:30 start time. We've enjoyed having all of our windows open for the past few weeks. The weather has really been great, but now we're getting in to rainy season. There is rain in the forecast everyday for the foreseeable future, but it doesn't always come to fruition. It didn't rain yesterday, for example. But as long as it's raining, the temperatures stay in the high 60s or low 70s, so you can't complain! And the sun is now coming up at 3:45, so you've got a lot more time to enjoy the cool temperatur
es. The sunset (pictured) is around 7:30.Having the windows open leaves you a little more susceptible to the many and varied sounds of a Chinese neighborhood. We usually wake up to the banging of plastic buckets and the long, high-pitched cries of "recycling men" (for lack of a better term). These men [and women] ride around banging on their buckets or shouting out their presence in case anyone within ear shot has some bit of recycling to give them. This includes everything from bottles and cans to scraps of metal or cardboard and old refrigerators. Of course, there is the constant honking and the sounds of trucks and buses braking. We also have been hearing someone play a flute, or similar instrument, quite a bit recently. It would seem that this person has just taken it up and is practicing with determination, because I can constantly hear the same patterns and notes floating out of a nearby window. It would also seem, however, that the flute player has not contracted a tutor or learned how to read music... Just now I heard a large piece of metal hit the ground and a few weeks ago we heard the constant pounding of bricks into sand as all of the sidewalks around our neighborhood were redone. And of course, you can always hear voices. The other night we heard a pitched and feverish argument between a young couple, wherein the woman was crying and yelling in that hoarse, somewhat unintelligible way that people yell between sobs. All very interesting.
And that's about all I can think of to say.
Good morning, Good night, or Good afternoon! Choose the one which best applies...
Love you all!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
A Post
*Click on the title for a good story. I later heard that the man named Lian Jiansheng was on his way to pick up his crazy meds, which makes a lot of sense.
Again, I'm (we're... Steve just doesn't even try anymore) having trouble deciding what to write about! But here is some stuff for you to read....
1. I have an adult class with two students. One is a middle-aged man with a son in college and a wife in another city. He is new to town and moved here for business. I named him Greg. The other is a youngish woman with a 3 year old son who grew up in Harbin. She named herself Sisi (like Cici, but the Chinese don't like to spell it like that because of some connotation unbeknownst to me). Anyway, this class takes place twice a week but only lasts for 40 minutes each time. Honestly, I don't think they get much out of it, because Greg is always asking Sisi questions in Chinese and she often translates what I just said for him because their conversational English level is quite limited. But, they really seem to enjoy the class and my company for some reason. We've had fun getting to know each other. They took Steve and I out to dinner last week to a place called Mala 100%. It specializes in spicy food and it was delicious! We toasted each other several times and discussed any and every topic under the moon. Yesterday, Greg and Sisi both brought me colorful paper lanterns (for lack of a better word) to make sure that I was properly outfitted for Dragon Boat Festival, which was today. Anyway, they're nice folks and fun to chat with.
2. We're trying to plan some post contract travel in China, so we've been looking at lots of possible destinations. The truth is, if you've seen one big city you've seen them all! Of course, some have more interesting attractions than others, but really Steve and I are more interested in outdoorsy and nature things. SO, we're looking at going south and west and possibly touring Tiger Leaping Gorge. It is said to be remarkably beautiful, so we'd like to see it for ourselves. Google it for more information. There is a guy who runs a guesthouse down there, and from everything we can find online it seems like that guesthouse and that guy are really cool. So, yeah.
3. Blogger.com is blocked in China right now, as is youtube. Luckily, proxies can get you most of what you want to see, but it's always interesting to see what gets blocked. New sites are always getting the axe from China.
4. It's interesting to live in a pre-furnished apartment. You have exactly what you need and little else. This is not really a problem, but we often dirty all of our dishes in a single meal because we have so few! It helps you to get in the habit of washing a bowl or plate as soon as you're done with it so that you don't have to do it when you're ready for breakfast in the morning.
5. Lots of our friends either just got married or are about to... so here's one big CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! for all of the happy couples. Hope you enjoy your first year of marriage as much as Steve and I did!
We love you all and might be seeing you sooner than expected! Miss you!
*Happy Dragon Boat Festival Day*
Again, I'm (we're... Steve just doesn't even try anymore) having trouble deciding what to write about! But here is some stuff for you to read....
1. I have an adult class with two students. One is a middle-aged man with a son in college and a wife in another city. He is new to town and moved here for business. I named him Greg. The other is a youngish woman with a 3 year old son who grew up in Harbin. She named herself Sisi (like Cici, but the Chinese don't like to spell it like that because of some connotation unbeknownst to me). Anyway, this class takes place twice a week but only lasts for 40 minutes each time. Honestly, I don't think they get much out of it, because Greg is always asking Sisi questions in Chinese and she often translates what I just said for him because their conversational English level is quite limited. But, they really seem to enjoy the class and my company for some reason. We've had fun getting to know each other. They took Steve and I out to dinner last week to a place called Mala 100%. It specializes in spicy food and it was delicious! We toasted each other several times and discussed any and every topic under the moon. Yesterday, Greg and Sisi both brought me colorful paper lanterns (for lack of a better word) to make sure that I was properly outfitted for Dragon Boat Festival, which was today. Anyway, they're nice folks and fun to chat with.
2. We're trying to plan some post contract travel in China, so we've been looking at lots of possible destinations. The truth is, if you've seen one big city you've seen them all! Of course, some have more interesting attractions than others, but really Steve and I are more interested in outdoorsy and nature things. SO, we're looking at going south and west and possibly touring Tiger Leaping Gorge. It is said to be remarkably beautiful, so we'd like to see it for ourselves. Google it for more information. There is a guy who runs a guesthouse down there, and from everything we can find online it seems like that guesthouse and that guy are really cool. So, yeah.
3. Blogger.com is blocked in China right now, as is youtube. Luckily, proxies can get you most of what you want to see, but it's always interesting to see what gets blocked. New sites are always getting the axe from China.
4. It's interesting to live in a pre-furnished apartment. You have exactly what you need and little else. This is not really a problem, but we often dirty all of our dishes in a single meal because we have so few! It helps you to get in the habit of washing a bowl or plate as soon as you're done with it so that you don't have to do it when you're ready for breakfast in the morning.
5. Lots of our friends either just got married or are about to... so here's one big CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! for all of the happy couples. Hope you enjoy your first year of marriage as much as Steve and I did!
We love you all and might be seeing you sooner than expected! Miss you!
*Happy Dragon Boat Festival Day*
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
A loose promise...
Hey all you out there still checking for updates and being disappointed.... I just wanted to put it out there that we loosely promise that we'll post something soon. Why loose? Because I don't know how soon... maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow morning, maybe one more week? The truth is, there just isn't a whole lot going on in our lives and we're not the kind of people who want/need everyone out there to know and value our fairly insignificant, daily thoughts and opinions.
Here's a preview of things we should/could write about:
1. Staff trip to Chang Ling Hu
2. Our developing plans for travel within China
3. The bummer that is our "ideal" work schedule, until it actually happens to you
4. Websites that are blocked in China, including www.blogger.com
5. A few more pictures that we have
6. Other cool China stuff
7. Future plans
We love you all and are thinking of everyone. Quite a few of our friends and family are going through some really rough times right now, so we send our thoughts and prayers out to all of you. We certainly wish we could be there for many of you in your times of need. We greatly look forward to catching up with each and every one of you when we get home.
Love,
Steve and Jaclyn "Bad Bloggers" Spangler
Here's a preview of things we should/could write about:
1. Staff trip to Chang Ling Hu
2. Our developing plans for travel within China
3. The bummer that is our "ideal" work schedule, until it actually happens to you
4. Websites that are blocked in China, including www.blogger.com
5. A few more pictures that we have
6. Other cool China stuff
7. Future plans
We love you all and are thinking of everyone. Quite a few of our friends and family are going through some really rough times right now, so we send our thoughts and prayers out to all of you. We certainly wish we could be there for many of you in your times of need. We greatly look forward to catching up with each and every one of you when we get home.
Love,
Steve and Jaclyn "Bad Bloggers" Spangler
Saturday, April 25, 2009
General update
Hey all! So, I updated the blog's appearance just a bit but we haven't written in a while.
Not much to report. Our biggest news is that we bought a rice cooker. The salewoman at the supermarket was very nice and patient with us. Surprisingly enough, there is an aisle full of rice cookers to browse when you're in the market for this small appliance. They range in price from 49- 500+ kuai, but we were definitely looking on the lower end of the spectrum. Even so, we had 5 or 6 to choose from. Most of the cheaper rice cookers are white/pink and covered in flowers. Steve told me that he didn't really want a flowery rice cooker to bedeck our kitchen and I told the saleswoman as much. Lucky for us, the model we were interested in came in two designs! So we decided on a 79kuai (on sale from 99), white with pink swirlies beauty. And boy can she cook some rice! Just throw some rice and water in there and don't even worry about it, cause the cooker has it under control. This purchase came after several attempts to cook rice in our paper thin pots and burning it every time. I make a lot of rice back home (it's a staple in Braun dinner fare), but I'd never had this burning problem before! So the rice cooker is a bit of a cheater system, but worth the dough we shelled out. Now we have fresh, delicious, perfectly cooked rice anytime we want it.
On a very unrelated note, there is a great art display comparing Western and Eastern life that you can see here (or click on the post title). These were done by a Chinese woman who grew up in China and moved to Germany when she was in her early teens. A strikingly simple concept that really nails some of the differences between Eastern and Western culture. There are a few I don't quite agree with, but see for yourself and let us know what you think. If you have no idea what's going on in these pictures, click on the Will-Excel TESOL blog link on the right. One of our co-workers who has lived here for a few years and has a Chinese wife posted a few of the pictures with his personal commentary which should help you to understand the meaning a bit better.
Also, several people have told us that they've had trouble leaving a comment on the blog. We can't figure out why, but it seems that if you post as Anonymous it works better than trying to post from a google/yahoo/whatever account. Just sign your name in the comment if you want to let us know who you are!
Thanks for reading! 再见 (zai jian) !
Not much to report. Our biggest news is that we bought a rice cooker. The salewoman at the supermarket was very nice and patient with us. Surprisingly enough, there is an aisle full of rice cookers to browse when you're in the market for this small appliance. They range in price from 49- 500+ kuai, but we were definitely looking on the lower end of the spectrum. Even so, we had 5 or 6 to choose from. Most of the cheaper rice cookers are white/pink and covered in flowers. Steve told me that he didn't really want a flowery rice cooker to bedeck our kitchen and I told the saleswoman as much. Lucky for us, the model we were interested in came in two designs! So we decided on a 79kuai (on sale from 99), white with pink swirlies beauty. And boy can she cook some rice! Just throw some rice and water in there and don't even worry about it, cause the cooker has it under control. This purchase came after several attempts to cook rice in our paper thin pots and burning it every time. I make a lot of rice back home (it's a staple in Braun dinner fare), but I'd never had this burning problem before! So the rice cooker is a bit of a cheater system, but worth the dough we shelled out. Now we have fresh, delicious, perfectly cooked rice anytime we want it.
On a very unrelated note, there is a great art display comparing Western and Eastern life that you can see here (or click on the post title). These were done by a Chinese woman who grew up in China and moved to Germany when she was in her early teens. A strikingly simple concept that really nails some of the differences between Eastern and Western culture. There are a few I don't quite agree with, but see for yourself and let us know what you think. If you have no idea what's going on in these pictures, click on the Will-Excel TESOL blog link on the right. One of our co-workers who has lived here for a few years and has a Chinese wife posted a few of the pictures with his personal commentary which should help you to understand the meaning a bit better.
Also, several people have told us that they've had trouble leaving a comment on the blog. We can't figure out why, but it seems that if you post as Anonymous it works better than trying to post from a google/yahoo/whatever account. Just sign your name in the comment if you want to let us know who you are!
Thanks for reading! 再见 (zai jian) !
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Good things on the web
It's an amazing thing, the internet.. eh? I've often wondered how different my life would have been if I had lived in a time completely devoid of internet (ahem, 15 years ago...). I still recall doing book reports with nothing but the library card catalog system, but honestly I am a child of the world wide web. I can't imagine what college would have been like without my friends Google and Blackboard. Maybe one of the coolest hang out spots at Clemson, the Robert Muldrow Cooper Library, would have made more sense to me.... I mean, I always wondered what all of those shelves full of bound papers were all about. Sometimes they got in the way of all of my friends sitting at one table with our laptops and coffees.
But anyway, this is the first time I've kept a blog and I must say that the most surprising thing I've found is that people I don't know have read it. I write posts with the assumption that those reading the blog know me, so they know my sense of humor and my outlook on the world and life. They know that my ramblings are merely observations made after 4 years of studying Chinese culture, history, and anthropology and almost a [collective] year of living in China. A lot of things written are meant to be taken with a grain of Steve/Jaclyn salt, which is difficult to do if you don't know us. So if you're out there reading this and have no idea who Steve and Jaclyn Spangler are....well I don't know how to tell you about us in just a sentence or two. Hopefully you won't judge us too harshly....
But honestly, what amazes me is how others even find the blog! I've run google searches and have never hit on SpanglersinChina.blogspot.com. Fascinating... just goes to show you how powerful the internet can be. Of course, I understand reading blogs with which you have no personal association. I do it too! Sometimes they provide answers to google queries, sometimes I link to them through friends' sites or recommendations, and other times I just stumble upon them. It really is interesting to gain a glimpse of someone else's perspective on life and thereby understand your own outlook just a little bit better.
One reason I'm surprised that others read our blog is that I'm bad at surfing the web. Steve can spend all day on the computer finding interesting things, reading reviews and specs on various products, and going from site to site, but I just check my e-mail and occasionally peruse facebook. If I have any questions about life or the universe and '42' just doesn't seem to answer them, I'll run a search. Every once in a while I'll stumble upon some other sites or get sent a link from family/friends. So here are some websites I've been reading lately. Some are blogs and some are official news sites. In case you're web-surfing impaired like me, maybe you'll find these interesting.
A guy doing some good with coffee:
Company website- http://www.DrinkCoffeeDoGood.com
Personal blog- http://jonathangolden.typepad.com/
Woody Harrelson's zombie qualms:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/04/10/woody.harrelson.zombie/index.html
A place to get a good ol' fashioned Amurrrican name:
http://rumandmonkey.com/widgets/toys/namegen/12054/
A blog entitled 'Simple Bliss' written by a girl who wonders why she has migraines:
http://vanessa.hoozh.net/
And although I want to post more links, I am out of ideas...
But anyway, this is the first time I've kept a blog and I must say that the most surprising thing I've found is that people I don't know have read it. I write posts with the assumption that those reading the blog know me, so they know my sense of humor and my outlook on the world and life. They know that my ramblings are merely observations made after 4 years of studying Chinese culture, history, and anthropology and almost a [collective] year of living in China. A lot of things written are meant to be taken with a grain of Steve/Jaclyn salt, which is difficult to do if you don't know us. So if you're out there reading this and have no idea who Steve and Jaclyn Spangler are....well I don't know how to tell you about us in just a sentence or two. Hopefully you won't judge us too harshly....
But honestly, what amazes me is how others even find the blog! I've run google searches and have never hit on SpanglersinChina.blogspot.com. Fascinating... just goes to show you how powerful the internet can be. Of course, I understand reading blogs with which you have no personal association. I do it too! Sometimes they provide answers to google queries, sometimes I link to them through friends' sites or recommendations, and other times I just stumble upon them. It really is interesting to gain a glimpse of someone else's perspective on life and thereby understand your own outlook just a little bit better.
One reason I'm surprised that others read our blog is that I'm bad at surfing the web. Steve can spend all day on the computer finding interesting things, reading reviews and specs on various products, and going from site to site, but I just check my e-mail and occasionally peruse facebook. If I have any questions about life or the universe and '42' just doesn't seem to answer them, I'll run a search. Every once in a while I'll stumble upon some other sites or get sent a link from family/friends. So here are some websites I've been reading lately. Some are blogs and some are official news sites. In case you're web-surfing impaired like me, maybe you'll find these interesting.
A guy doing some good with coffee:
Company website- http://www.DrinkCoffeeDoGood.com
Personal blog- http://jonathangolden.typepad.com/
Woody Harrelson's zombie qualms:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/04/10/woody.harrelson.zombie/index.html
A place to get a good ol' fashioned Amurrrican name:
http://rumandmonkey.com/
A blog entitled 'Simple Bliss' written by a girl who wonders why she has migraines:
http://vanessa.hoozh.net/
And although I want to post more links, I am out of ideas...
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Thumbing my way
As the great American singer/songwriter Eddie Vedder once put it, "No matter how cold the winter, there's a springtime ahead." This lyric has never struck such a chord with me as it did today, while I was listening to my iPod and walking down the street as a warm Spring breeze caressed my face. It is absolutely beautiful here, with temperatures in the 50s and 60s, and a high of 71F tomorrow! We can only hope this weather lasts for months to come.
Anyway, one of our devoted readers has sent a laundry list of questions about life in China, so I am going to do my best to answer a few of them. Here goes...
1. Please tell us about Chinese tv (if you have one), radio, newspapers...how do you get the news? Is satellite unknown where you are? If you have a tv, do you pay for that service (like cable)?
We do have a TV, but we only get one channel. This channel comes in only when it wants to. We have tried messing with our antenna and tying a metal spatula to the antenna, but all to little or no avail. This one channel is the local Harbin channel, which shows Harbin news and weather and a lot of extended commercials for local hospitals, etc. When the Winter Universiade (worldwide college sports competition) was here in February we were able to watch a few of the competitions on our fuzzy channel. We could pay for cable if we wanted it. I had a Chinese woman tell me that it was quite cheap, maybe $15 for the whole year. Cable consists of almost all Chinese language channels, with the exception of CCTV9 which shows some English language news and has short Chinese lessons. I have not heard of anyone who has satellite TV, but I honestly don't know if this is an option or not. We catch up on most of our news at CNN.com and TheOnion.com, because these are the two most reliable news source to which we have access.
2. What do the Chinese think of Obama? Do they like him? Do they even know who he is?
Steve and I have had several university classes called "one-offs" wherein you teach a university class that is normally taught by a Chinese teacher for one class period [of their semester] so that they can get some exposure to a native speaker. In these classes I often talk about Obama. All of the Chinese people know who he is and most seem to like him very much. However, they know almost nothing about him. The most common things you hear are that they like him much more than Bush (when I was here two years ago they all hated P. Bush) and they realize that for America to have a black president is a big step in our history. Sometimes they don't understand why, so I use the example of their attitude toward the Japanese and say, "It's kind of like if you had a Japanese president 100 years from now." I think this usually paints a pretty vivid picture for them. Many of the students ask me about the economic crisis as a side note to this conversation. I tell them that Americans have a lot of faith in Obama to "fix" things. The English level of these students is usually quite low, so I explain to them using a few key vocabulary words how we feel about Obama and it usually goes something like this: "Things in America are very bad right now. I know many people who have lost their jobs. We hope, we hope (I usually repeat a lot and re-emphasize things because their listening skills aren't great), that President Obama can fix the economy. But, Obama is very young, yes? and doesn't have very much experience, yes? so we do not know yet. We like Obama and we hope that he can do it. What do you think?" Often, students respond that they believe in America and have faith that things will be set right quickly. This is always interesting for me to hear and I'm not sure if they mean it or not.
3. What does a Chinese map of the world look like? I suppose China is at the center; does it feel funny to look at it like that? Do the Chinese know world geography very well?
Yes, a Chinese map has China at the center, with America across the Pacific to it's right. It does seem a little odd sometimes at first glance when I look at the map. It's like, "Wow, something is really off with South America.. oh wait, that's Africa." It is difficult to know whether or not they know geography very well because of the language gap, but I would lean toward saying no to this question. I have tried to talk about Mexican food and the reason we learn Spanish in America, but I often can not get them to say either the Chinese or the English for Mexico. I'll draw a little map and be like, "You know, the country under America..?" They just shake their heads. There have also been other instances when students couldn't name a country in Chinese or English, so I think that geography is not as emphasized in school as other subjects. I do know that most of their curriculum is based around math and Chinese language.
4. Do the Chinese teens/young adults listen to American music? What do they listen to? Do they all have IPods? Blackberries?
Yes, teens and young adults do listen to some American music. I would say more than half of the older students I've taught could name a few American artists. However, not all. And the artists they know are often a bit out of date or odd picks... For example, boys here love the Backstreet Boys and are shocked to learn that this was 13 year old girl music many years ago in America. Avril Lavigne is also a very common name that I hear, which I think is strange. Their main focus is on pop music, because that is what they can find. I do have a one-on-one student who likes "underground" music, but I haven't discovered which artists he means yet. They also like techno and club type music. Just about every person with any money in China has either a really nice cell phone that plays MP3s or an MP3/MP4 player. iPods are quite rare, but people do have them. MP3 players are so plentiful and cheap that an iPod seems like somewhat of a waste to most of them. However, they seem to spend a lot of money on phones. Phone prices are about the same, without the bonus of 'free phone with contract' deals. So people are regularly spending a few hundred dollars on a phone that will do everything (with text messaging, internet access, and MP3 player being the most desired qualities) when they might not make this much money in a month. It's just an important purchase for them and has quickly become a 'must have' for all Chinese people in cities.
Anyway, one of our devoted readers has sent a laundry list of questions about life in China, so I am going to do my best to answer a few of them. Here goes...
1. Please tell us about Chinese tv (if you have one), radio, newspapers...how do you get the news? Is satellite unknown where you are? If you have a tv, do you pay for that service (like cable)?
We do have a TV, but we only get one channel. This channel comes in only when it wants to. We have tried messing with our antenna and tying a metal spatula to the antenna, but all to little or no avail. This one channel is the local Harbin channel, which shows Harbin news and weather and a lot of extended commercials for local hospitals, etc. When the Winter Universiade (worldwide college sports competition) was here in February we were able to watch a few of the competitions on our fuzzy channel. We could pay for cable if we wanted it. I had a Chinese woman tell me that it was quite cheap, maybe $15 for the whole year. Cable consists of almost all Chinese language channels, with the exception of CCTV9 which shows some English language news and has short Chinese lessons. I have not heard of anyone who has satellite TV, but I honestly don't know if this is an option or not. We catch up on most of our news at CNN.com and TheOnion.com, because these are the two most reliable news source to which we have access.
2. What do the Chinese think of Obama? Do they like him? Do they even know who he is?
Steve and I have had several university classes called "one-offs" wherein you teach a university class that is normally taught by a Chinese teacher for one class period [of their semester] so that they can get some exposure to a native speaker. In these classes I often talk about Obama. All of the Chinese people know who he is and most seem to like him very much. However, they know almost nothing about him. The most common things you hear are that they like him much more than Bush (when I was here two years ago they all hated P. Bush) and they realize that for America to have a black president is a big step in our history. Sometimes they don't understand why, so I use the example of their attitude toward the Japanese and say, "It's kind of like if you had a Japanese president 100 years from now." I think this usually paints a pretty vivid picture for them. Many of the students ask me about the economic crisis as a side note to this conversation. I tell them that Americans have a lot of faith in Obama to "fix" things. The English level of these students is usually quite low, so I explain to them using a few key vocabulary words how we feel about Obama and it usually goes something like this: "Things in America are very bad right now. I know many people who have lost their jobs. We hope, we hope (I usually repeat a lot and re-emphasize things because their listening skills aren't great), that President Obama can fix the economy. But, Obama is very young, yes? and doesn't have very much experience, yes? so we do not know yet. We like Obama and we hope that he can do it. What do you think?" Often, students respond that they believe in America and have faith that things will be set right quickly. This is always interesting for me to hear and I'm not sure if they mean it or not.
3. What does a Chinese map of the world look like? I suppose China is at the center; does it feel funny to look at it like that? Do the Chinese know world geography very well?
Yes, a Chinese map has China at the center, with America across the Pacific to it's right. It does seem a little odd sometimes at first glance when I look at the map. It's like, "Wow, something is really off with South America.. oh wait, that's Africa." It is difficult to know whether or not they know geography very well because of the language gap, but I would lean toward saying no to this question. I have tried to talk about Mexican food and the reason we learn Spanish in America, but I often can not get them to say either the Chinese or the English for Mexico. I'll draw a little map and be like, "You know, the country under America..?" They just shake their heads. There have also been other instances when students couldn't name a country in Chinese or English, so I think that geography is not as emphasized in school as other subjects. I do know that most of their curriculum is based around math and Chinese language.
4. Do the Chinese teens/young adults listen to American music? What do they listen to? Do they all have IPods? Blackberries?
Yes, teens and young adults do listen to some American music. I would say more than half of the older students I've taught could name a few American artists. However, not all. And the artists they know are often a bit out of date or odd picks... For example, boys here love the Backstreet Boys and are shocked to learn that this was 13 year old girl music many years ago in America. Avril Lavigne is also a very common name that I hear, which I think is strange. Their main focus is on pop music, because that is what they can find. I do have a one-on-one student who likes "underground" music, but I haven't discovered which artists he means yet. They also like techno and club type music. Just about every person with any money in China has either a really nice cell phone that plays MP3s or an MP3/MP4 player. iPods are quite rare, but people do have them. MP3 players are so plentiful and cheap that an iPod seems like somewhat of a waste to most of them. However, they seem to spend a lot of money on phones. Phone prices are about the same, without the bonus of 'free phone with contract' deals. So people are regularly spending a few hundred dollars on a phone that will do everything (with text messaging, internet access, and MP3 player being the most desired qualities) when they might not make this much money in a month. It's just an important purchase for them and has quickly become a 'must have' for all Chinese people in cities.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Utilities and the like
A few more things that I wanted to get out there:
- It's my Dad's birthday... HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! And Amy's birthday was yesterday... HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY! And I think there are a lot of other birthdays coming up, so if it's your birthday then... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
- A few weeks ago the electric company shut off our power because the money that had been fronted by our school [for electricity] had been used up and apparently we had consumed a bit too much power [without payment] for the comfort of the electric company. So off it went. Upon inspection, Steve immediately noticed that the big box on the 3rd floor that houses everyones power meters had a smaller box above it with the breaker switches. This box was not locked. Steve knew that we could just flip our switch back on, then we'd have power, and voila! problem solved. We did the right thing, however, and went and paid the bill with some extra deposit. (In case you're curious but you're too politely Western to ask, I'll tell you how much it costs: It was about $20 for a month and a half of electricity, but this was when we had a 3rd person living with us and we often plugged in our space heaters overnight. I'm expecting power costs to go down in the next few months.) Of course, Steve needed to plug in the hot water heater so he could take a shower before class... so we saved the power company the trouble of coming over to flip our switch back on and went ahead and did it ourselves.
- A woman came to our door sometime last week with a stapled packet of receipts. I could understand very little of what she was saying, but I knew that she wanted us to pay her some money. When we told her we weren't interested, she told us that that wasn't an option and that the whole building was paying her. Steve was still very hesitant to hand over the money, but I told him that I knew she wanted us to pay her money and that she wasn't going to leave until we did... I could understand that much of her Chinese! (Of course, our neighbors were watching much of this from their door.) Steve did the smart thing and called the school and had her talk to one of the Chinese staff. Turns out, she's our local garbage lady! Actually, I think she was the business end (hence the money collecting) and her husband is probably the working end. A true Mom and Pop operation, if you will. Anyway, we owed 14 kuai for 3 months of garbage service. (You just stick your bags of garbage, which are all tiny sized [think bathroom garbage can], in the stairwell and they eventually get picked up by some mysterious entity. I often see a man with a biycle retrofitted with a large trailer completely heaped full of tiny garbage bags, so no garbage trucks here.) Well, they are mysterious no more! Can you believe we had to pay $2.05 for this service! Outrageous prices, I'm thinking of switching to another company....
- It's my Dad's birthday... HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! And Amy's birthday was yesterday... HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY! And I think there are a lot of other birthdays coming up, so if it's your birthday then... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
- A few weeks ago the electric company shut off our power because the money that had been fronted by our school [for electricity] had been used up and apparently we had consumed a bit too much power [without payment] for the comfort of the electric company. So off it went. Upon inspection, Steve immediately noticed that the big box on the 3rd floor that houses everyones power meters had a smaller box above it with the breaker switches. This box was not locked. Steve knew that we could just flip our switch back on, then we'd have power, and voila! problem solved. We did the right thing, however, and went and paid the bill with some extra deposit. (In case you're curious but you're too politely Western to ask, I'll tell you how much it costs: It was about $20 for a month and a half of electricity, but this was when we had a 3rd person living with us and we often plugged in our space heaters overnight. I'm expecting power costs to go down in the next few months.) Of course, Steve needed to plug in the hot water heater so he could take a shower before class... so we saved the power company the trouble of coming over to flip our switch back on and went ahead and did it ourselves.
- A woman came to our door sometime last week with a stapled packet of receipts. I could understand very little of what she was saying, but I knew that she wanted us to pay her some money. When we told her we weren't interested, she told us that that wasn't an option and that the whole building was paying her. Steve was still very hesitant to hand over the money, but I told him that I knew she wanted us to pay her money and that she wasn't going to leave until we did... I could understand that much of her Chinese! (Of course, our neighbors were watching much of this from their door.) Steve did the smart thing and called the school and had her talk to one of the Chinese staff. Turns out, she's our local garbage lady! Actually, I think she was the business end (hence the money collecting) and her husband is probably the working end. A true Mom and Pop operation, if you will. Anyway, we owed 14 kuai for 3 months of garbage service. (You just stick your bags of garbage, which are all tiny sized [think bathroom garbage can], in the stairwell and they eventually get picked up by some mysterious entity. I often see a man with a biycle retrofitted with a large trailer completely heaped full of tiny garbage bags, so no garbage trucks here.) Well, they are mysterious no more! Can you believe we had to pay $2.05 for this service! Outrageous prices, I'm thinking of switching to another company....
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Some things you should know...
I still don't know what all I've thought of to post, but here are a few things that I can remember right now:
A. It's getting really warm! The high today is 57F and tomorrow it will be 62!! Junk, that was quick. The weather is always so bittersweet (no matter where you live) because when it's super cold you think of nothing but warmth. However, as soon as it gets hot you yearn for the cold and layered clothing. Where is it that has nothing but spring and autumn again...?
B. Anyone [Chinese] that I talk to thinks I'm Russian. At least once a day I have to say, "Wo bu shi Eguoren (I'm not Russian)." Even when I teach university classes and the students know that I am their English teacher they ask if I am from Russia. A taxi driver once handed me a Russian phrase book that he had been studying so that I could check it out and another taxi driver asked me to translate the meaning of a Russian word for him. I suppose this is mainly because we live so close to Russia and the history of Russia and Harbin are closely connected. I see this problem as having a good and a bad side.
Bad: If China and Russia have some big falling out [for whatever reason], I'm gonna have to get the heck out of Dodge!
Good: On the flip side, if America and China have some big falling out all I have to do is say, "Damn Yanks. Good to be Russian..."
*Steve has not had this problem but he says that he is rarely in the situation that someone must suppose his nationality. So not sure what they think of him except I usually get a, "He's very handsome!" from Chinese girls who hear we're married.
C. I am in this weird place between knowing that everything about China is completely different than America while at the same time not really thinking that anything about our lives in China is different than it would be back home. I've been here before. When I returned from China a few years ago people would always ask me the burning question of, "What's China like?? I mean, how different is it?" But this was the most difficult question for me to answer, because after two trips to China I had gotten accustomed to so many of the differences that I barely registered them as "differences"... it was more like my brain had divided things into China and America so when I saw something I didn't think anything of it, just knew that it belonged to the China side. Having Steve with me on this 3rd trip provides an interesting perspective. We were sipping some coffee the other day and I asked if he really noticed any differences. His response was to the effect that the two countries are completely black and white, apples and oranges. So I guess that's it... the differences are so deeply and culturally seeded that they can not easily be explained. I still don't have a quick and easy answer to the, "How's it different?" question. Sorry...
D. We have found one of our new favorite treats: popcorn! Much like one of those specialty popcorn stores that sell candied popcorn of all different colors and flavors, there are some street vendors around town who stir popcorn into big vats of sugar coating of various colors and sell a bag of it for 2 kuai and it's always hot and fresh! Yummm.
A. It's getting really warm! The high today is 57F and tomorrow it will be 62!! Junk, that was quick. The weather is always so bittersweet (no matter where you live) because when it's super cold you think of nothing but warmth. However, as soon as it gets hot you yearn for the cold and layered clothing. Where is it that has nothing but spring and autumn again...?
B. Anyone [Chinese] that I talk to thinks I'm Russian. At least once a day I have to say, "Wo bu shi Eguoren (I'm not Russian)." Even when I teach university classes and the students know that I am their English teacher they ask if I am from Russia. A taxi driver once handed me a Russian phrase book that he had been studying so that I could check it out and another taxi driver asked me to translate the meaning of a Russian word for him. I suppose this is mainly because we live so close to Russia and the history of Russia and Harbin are closely connected. I see this problem as having a good and a bad side.
Bad: If China and Russia have some big falling out [for whatever reason], I'm gonna have to get the heck out of Dodge!
Good: On the flip side, if America and China have some big falling out all I have to do is say, "Damn Yanks. Good to be Russian..."
*Steve has not had this problem but he says that he is rarely in the situation that someone must suppose his nationality. So not sure what they think of him except I usually get a, "He's very handsome!" from Chinese girls who hear we're married.
C. I am in this weird place between knowing that everything about China is completely different than America while at the same time not really thinking that anything about our lives in China is different than it would be back home. I've been here before. When I returned from China a few years ago people would always ask me the burning question of, "What's China like?? I mean, how different is it?" But this was the most difficult question for me to answer, because after two trips to China I had gotten accustomed to so many of the differences that I barely registered them as "differences"... it was more like my brain had divided things into China and America so when I saw something I didn't think anything of it, just knew that it belonged to the China side. Having Steve with me on this 3rd trip provides an interesting perspective. We were sipping some coffee the other day and I asked if he really noticed any differences. His response was to the effect that the two countries are completely black and white, apples and oranges. So I guess that's it... the differences are so deeply and culturally seeded that they can not easily be explained. I still don't have a quick and easy answer to the, "How's it different?" question. Sorry...
D. We have found one of our new favorite treats: popcorn! Much like one of those specialty popcorn stores that sell candied popcorn of all different colors and flavors, there are some street vendors around town who stir popcorn into big vats of sugar coating of various colors and sell a bag of it for 2 kuai and it's always hot and fresh! Yummm.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Teaching English in China
*Note: More pictures have been added to the "Around Harbin" album from Steve and I's day off. We went walking down "Walking Street" (aka Center Street), a rather long cobblestone street for strolling and shopping.
OK, if you read my previous post then you should know I have so many things floating around in my head to write about! But I will go with something concrete that everyone is probably curious of anyway... what it looks/feels like to teach English in China!
Before coming we were lured by the "22 hours per week" slogan that our school advertised, as are most people coming to China to teach English (anywhere between 16-25 hrs/week is standard). But once our month long TESOL course was over, we quickly realized that this is easily a 40+ hour per week job! 22 hours refers to the face time we have with students. So add to that the 10 minute break during every class, 'dead' time of sometimes 30 minutes up to 2 hours between classes when you can't really do anything but sit in the office or walk around the block, travel time to various campuses and branches, and [the main time eater of] lesson planning/preparation, and you have somewhere around 40 hours. So many of you are saying, "Well yeah, Jaclyn! I think a 40 hour week is pretty standard. In fact, I work a 40 hour week!" And yes, most of you do. All I'm saying is, we were mentally prepared for something closer to 22 hours and found out that this really is a full time job! I'm not complaining, just trying to let you in on some of what's going on in our lives.
But anyway, these 40 hours are spread across a 6 day week, with Steve and I having Monday off every week. In all, this makes for a really strange schedule! Yesterday I worked a helluva split shift: I had to be up and at a local university by 8:00 AM to teach one 2 hour class, then I had the rest of the day off until I went to teach 3 and 4 year olds at 5:40 PM and a one-on-one with a 16 year old girl from 7:30-8:30. So I left home at 7:30AM and got back at 8:45PM. (Did I fail to mention the 3 hour nap I took in between...?) But that has been a somewhat typical schedule for me this first month, as I am still picking up my own classes and ironing out a more permanent schedule. Steve, on the other hand, is getting close to a firm 22 hour schedule. He already has a typical foreign language school weekend schedule, with 3 classes back-to-back on Saturday and 4 on Sunday.
One side note to make before I continue talking about being a teacher... The one-on-one student that I mentioned is named Sophie. I have a one hour session with her Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays (I know, it sounds like a Jimmy Buffet concert series) from 7:30-8:30PM. She is a 16 year old girl from Harbin. For the past two years she lived in Shanghai with her parents who own a restaurant. She came back to Harbin a few weeks ago to live with her aunt, uncle, and younger cousin (as most Chinese do, she calls her cousin her 'sister' because it's the closest thing to a sister she will ever have) and attend training school for flight attendants. Although she is only 16 years old (she admits she's the youngest in her class at the school) I guess her parents thought it was her best prospect, as you can make a decent living as a flight attendant. Something that I can't really ask outright in China for fear of making her lose face, is whether or not she even had a chance to go on in public school. In China, there are 9 years of compulsory education. When you are 15 or 16 you take the Senior Middle School (equivalent of high school in America) entrance exam. I guess Sophie must not have done well on this exam, so she is destined to vocational school of some type. However, she has a very open and honest relationship with her parents and is pretty mature for a 16 year old Chinese girl, which makes me think that maybe she led a somewhat normal childhood instead of the alternative of being locked in her room to study anytime she wasn't at public school, [insert musical instrument here] lessons, or private language school. So, that is the trade off. Live a happy childhood and one day become a flight attendant, or be a slave to your school books and not enjoy your childhood and one day maybe be a doctor.
One more side note... Because I get done at 8:30 three nights a week, I get to see one of the coolest things about China three nights of the week. No matter the weather, absolutely freezing to mildly comfortable, every night a large group of elderly Chinese people (with the odd teenager or younger couple) can be found in the park/square by our school building dancing the night away! Someone brings a large stereo system and plays various types of music and the couples (or two women together if a husband is missing) waltz around the square. Everyone knows the dances, although you occasionally see a younger person being taught. I can't explain what is so cool about this, but it truly is a bit surreal everytime I see it. I always find myself wanting to just stand and stare at them(and if I was Chinese, I would do just that) but I opt to walk slowly by (alas, I'm Western!) so that I can watch just a little bit longer. Who knows, come summer I might decide to join in.
So, back to teaching. There are many feelings and thoughts that continue to run through Steve and I's minds when it comes to teaching in China. Honestly, it is too difficult to explain many of these thoughts. Interestingly, before coming I thought that Steve would take to teaching much easier than I would and that I might not really like it. However, just the opposite has happened. Steve had expressed to me many of his concerns with this occupation (ESL in China is a completely different thing than teaching in America) and then he found a website that made him feel much better, because it was written by an American psychologist who had taught English in China for several years, and it said all of the same things that Steve had been saying. (The title of this post is a link to that site, but I will also put it here: http://middlekingdomlife.com/guide/index.htm) The site is targeted toward anyone thinking of coming to China to teach English. The picture he paints is wholly accurate, so if you are at all interested in the many, many aspects of teaching in China, this website says it better than I ever could.
In case you don't have time to read that website, I'll go ahead and point out one of the main differences between China and America: the educational system. Of course, we all knew this was true and any American holds certain stereotypes of Chinese students: 1) they study a lot, 2) they are really smart, 3) they are very respectful of their teachers. In reality, these stereotypes are not completely accurate. 1) Yes, they do study, A LOT. This is by no means of their own doing. Their parents make them study and do homework. Parents also make them go to extra lessons everyday after school (before they go home and study). This is because the only thing a child can really do for their parents in this modern Chinese society is succeed in the academic world and get a really great job to support their parents when they are older. Parents are all competing with each other to have the best and brightest student. 2) But that does not mean that all Chinese children are smart! Would that make sense? In ANY setting there will always be a somewhat balanced curve of really smart-->not smart. Just because you are made to study and go to classes all the time does not make you intelligent or particulary bright. And the type of education that is provided in China turns out some of the best linear thinkers around, but lateral thinking ('outside of the box', say) is nil. So to appear smart, Chinese students are made to memorize as much material as they can, encouraged to cheat, and praised for the best rote memorization. And then they come to private school in the evenings... 3) where they experience a whole different way of learning. Foreign language schools usually focus on the listening and speaking skills of English (hence the foreign, native speaking teacher), but these skills are not what any Chinese person really wants/needs. In fact, they just want to pass a written test of grammatical skills, reading, and writing. Once they get to these lessons at a private school, as late as 6:00 or 7:00 in the evening, they are severely uninterested in learning. They look at this time as their 'free time' and would rather be reading a non-educational book or playing computer games. For many reasons (again, read the website!), they are not very respectful of the foreign teacher. We are mainly just monkeys there for their entertainment, to facilitate fun 'learning' games related to English language.
OK, so this post is getting very long. But again, the website I have provided the link for is a MUST read if you find anything in the previous paragraph of interest. Steve and I really love China and being immersed in another culture. However, teaching English has exposed us to one of the not so great facets of the culture: the educational system. It is difficult to teach students day in and day out, knowing that they would rather be anywhere but in your classroom and pitying them because they are your captive for the next 2 hours. As Steve put it, "We live in a city of nearly 10 million people and you NEVER see kids running around or playing. Those old people on the playground equipment? They should be kids. And when you do see kids their parents are two feet away, ready to wipe their hands or mouths as they try to play like a normal kid."
The best way for me to sum all of our feelings up may be like this: Many people are drawn to the teaching profession because they crave the fulfillment of imparting knowledge to and really impacting those few truly great students. But our jobs here bring little of that satisfaction, as we are ill equipped to really "teach" anything due to a number of environmental factors. We like to do things well if we do them at all, and at times it feels like that isn't even possible here.
Whew, this is such a downer post! But I don't mean it to be. The truth is, Steve and I feel incredibly lucky to be here in China. We love the food, the culture, the people, and the feeling of being somewhere that is truly unique. We knew all along that teaching English was just the catalyst to get us here. Our contracts right now do not allow for any vacation days or time off, which makes teaching a bigger part of our lives for these first six months. Come August/September, we will hopefully have signed a contract with another school with lots of vacation days built in so we'll be able to travel and see more of this magnificent country. So, you should certainly not be feeling sorry for us after reading this! That was NOT my intention for this post. I mean, we live in China! That is awesome and way cooler than anything else I could imagine doing right now! Just riding the bus around the city is an adventure here. I just wanted to bring one facet of this unique culture to light and possibly clear up some misconceptions.
And don't forget, I get to see dancing Chinese folks in down parkas every other night. Life is good...
OK, if you read my previous post then you should know I have so many things floating around in my head to write about! But I will go with something concrete that everyone is probably curious of anyway... what it looks/feels like to teach English in China!
Before coming we were lured by the "22 hours per week" slogan that our school advertised, as are most people coming to China to teach English (anywhere between 16-25 hrs/week is standard). But once our month long TESOL course was over, we quickly realized that this is easily a 40+ hour per week job! 22 hours refers to the face time we have with students. So add to that the 10 minute break during every class, 'dead' time of sometimes 30 minutes up to 2 hours between classes when you can't really do anything but sit in the office or walk around the block, travel time to various campuses and branches, and [the main time eater of] lesson planning/preparation, and you have somewhere around 40 hours. So many of you are saying, "Well yeah, Jaclyn! I think a 40 hour week is pretty standard. In fact, I work a 40 hour week!" And yes, most of you do. All I'm saying is, we were mentally prepared for something closer to 22 hours and found out that this really is a full time job! I'm not complaining, just trying to let you in on some of what's going on in our lives.
But anyway, these 40 hours are spread across a 6 day week, with Steve and I having Monday off every week. In all, this makes for a really strange schedule! Yesterday I worked a helluva split shift: I had to be up and at a local university by 8:00 AM to teach one 2 hour class, then I had the rest of the day off until I went to teach 3 and 4 year olds at 5:40 PM and a one-on-one with a 16 year old girl from 7:30-8:30. So I left home at 7:30AM and got back at 8:45PM. (Did I fail to mention the 3 hour nap I took in between...?) But that has been a somewhat typical schedule for me this first month, as I am still picking up my own classes and ironing out a more permanent schedule. Steve, on the other hand, is getting close to a firm 22 hour schedule. He already has a typical foreign language school weekend schedule, with 3 classes back-to-back on Saturday and 4 on Sunday.
One side note to make before I continue talking about being a teacher... The one-on-one student that I mentioned is named Sophie. I have a one hour session with her Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays (I know, it sounds like a Jimmy Buffet concert series) from 7:30-8:30PM. She is a 16 year old girl from Harbin. For the past two years she lived in Shanghai with her parents who own a restaurant. She came back to Harbin a few weeks ago to live with her aunt, uncle, and younger cousin (as most Chinese do, she calls her cousin her 'sister' because it's the closest thing to a sister she will ever have) and attend training school for flight attendants. Although she is only 16 years old (she admits she's the youngest in her class at the school) I guess her parents thought it was her best prospect, as you can make a decent living as a flight attendant. Something that I can't really ask outright in China for fear of making her lose face, is whether or not she even had a chance to go on in public school. In China, there are 9 years of compulsory education. When you are 15 or 16 you take the Senior Middle School (equivalent of high school in America) entrance exam. I guess Sophie must not have done well on this exam, so she is destined to vocational school of some type. However, she has a very open and honest relationship with her parents and is pretty mature for a 16 year old Chinese girl, which makes me think that maybe she led a somewhat normal childhood instead of the alternative of being locked in her room to study anytime she wasn't at public school, [insert musical instrument here] lessons, or private language school. So, that is the trade off. Live a happy childhood and one day become a flight attendant, or be a slave to your school books and not enjoy your childhood and one day maybe be a doctor.
One more side note... Because I get done at 8:30 three nights a week, I get to see one of the coolest things about China three nights of the week. No matter the weather, absolutely freezing to mildly comfortable, every night a large group of elderly Chinese people (with the odd teenager or younger couple) can be found in the park/square by our school building dancing the night away! Someone brings a large stereo system and plays various types of music and the couples (or two women together if a husband is missing) waltz around the square. Everyone knows the dances, although you occasionally see a younger person being taught. I can't explain what is so cool about this, but it truly is a bit surreal everytime I see it. I always find myself wanting to just stand and stare at them(and if I was Chinese, I would do just that) but I opt to walk slowly by (alas, I'm Western!) so that I can watch just a little bit longer. Who knows, come summer I might decide to join in.
So, back to teaching. There are many feelings and thoughts that continue to run through Steve and I's minds when it comes to teaching in China. Honestly, it is too difficult to explain many of these thoughts. Interestingly, before coming I thought that Steve would take to teaching much easier than I would and that I might not really like it. However, just the opposite has happened. Steve had expressed to me many of his concerns with this occupation (ESL in China is a completely different thing than teaching in America) and then he found a website that made him feel much better, because it was written by an American psychologist who had taught English in China for several years, and it said all of the same things that Steve had been saying. (The title of this post is a link to that site, but I will also put it here: http://middlekingdomlife.com/guide/index.htm) The site is targeted toward anyone thinking of coming to China to teach English. The picture he paints is wholly accurate, so if you are at all interested in the many, many aspects of teaching in China, this website says it better than I ever could.
In case you don't have time to read that website, I'll go ahead and point out one of the main differences between China and America: the educational system. Of course, we all knew this was true and any American holds certain stereotypes of Chinese students: 1) they study a lot, 2) they are really smart, 3) they are very respectful of their teachers. In reality, these stereotypes are not completely accurate. 1) Yes, they do study, A LOT. This is by no means of their own doing. Their parents make them study and do homework. Parents also make them go to extra lessons everyday after school (before they go home and study). This is because the only thing a child can really do for their parents in this modern Chinese society is succeed in the academic world and get a really great job to support their parents when they are older. Parents are all competing with each other to have the best and brightest student. 2) But that does not mean that all Chinese children are smart! Would that make sense? In ANY setting there will always be a somewhat balanced curve of really smart-->not smart. Just because you are made to study and go to classes all the time does not make you intelligent or particulary bright. And the type of education that is provided in China turns out some of the best linear thinkers around, but lateral thinking ('outside of the box', say) is nil. So to appear smart, Chinese students are made to memorize as much material as they can, encouraged to cheat, and praised for the best rote memorization. And then they come to private school in the evenings... 3) where they experience a whole different way of learning. Foreign language schools usually focus on the listening and speaking skills of English (hence the foreign, native speaking teacher), but these skills are not what any Chinese person really wants/needs. In fact, they just want to pass a written test of grammatical skills, reading, and writing. Once they get to these lessons at a private school, as late as 6:00 or 7:00 in the evening, they are severely uninterested in learning. They look at this time as their 'free time' and would rather be reading a non-educational book or playing computer games. For many reasons (again, read the website!), they are not very respectful of the foreign teacher. We are mainly just monkeys there for their entertainment, to facilitate fun 'learning' games related to English language.
OK, so this post is getting very long. But again, the website I have provided the link for is a MUST read if you find anything in the previous paragraph of interest. Steve and I really love China and being immersed in another culture. However, teaching English has exposed us to one of the not so great facets of the culture: the educational system. It is difficult to teach students day in and day out, knowing that they would rather be anywhere but in your classroom and pitying them because they are your captive for the next 2 hours. As Steve put it, "We live in a city of nearly 10 million people and you NEVER see kids running around or playing. Those old people on the playground equipment? They should be kids. And when you do see kids their parents are two feet away, ready to wipe their hands or mouths as they try to play like a normal kid."
The best way for me to sum all of our feelings up may be like this: Many people are drawn to the teaching profession because they crave the fulfillment of imparting knowledge to and really impacting those few truly great students. But our jobs here bring little of that satisfaction, as we are ill equipped to really "teach" anything due to a number of environmental factors. We like to do things well if we do them at all, and at times it feels like that isn't even possible here.
Whew, this is such a downer post! But I don't mean it to be. The truth is, Steve and I feel incredibly lucky to be here in China. We love the food, the culture, the people, and the feeling of being somewhere that is truly unique. We knew all along that teaching English was just the catalyst to get us here. Our contracts right now do not allow for any vacation days or time off, which makes teaching a bigger part of our lives for these first six months. Come August/September, we will hopefully have signed a contract with another school with lots of vacation days built in so we'll be able to travel and see more of this magnificent country. So, you should certainly not be feeling sorry for us after reading this! That was NOT my intention for this post. I mean, we live in China! That is awesome and way cooler than anything else I could imagine doing right now! Just riding the bus around the city is an adventure here. I just wanted to bring one facet of this unique culture to light and possibly clear up some misconceptions.
And don't forget, I get to see dancing Chinese folks in down parkas every other night. Life is good...
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Blogging
So, I've had a couple of thoughts on keeping this blog that I'd like to share because I forget everything else that I want to write (but more on that later).
First off, this blog was inspired by Mike H., a friend of ours in California. I had told him of a few of Steve and I's future plans, and so he pulled me aside at the wedding and told me it would be a great idea to keep a blog. Not only for you all, the devoted readers, but also for ourselves. After all, it would be a terrible shame to forget everything that we had done/will be doing! I only wish I had started it earlier so that we could have chronicled our time in Eleuthera, Bahamas and Estes Park, CO and all of the little trips in between. But alas, it took moving to China to get it going. But I'd like to say thanks to Mike, because I really have enjoyed keeping this blog. And it's been a much better/easier medium than the mass e-mails I sent out a few years ago when I was in China.
But there is also one frustrating thing about the blog. It's not really blog specific so much as it's 'just how life is.' Here goes: often, I am walking down the street with the most brilliant commentary of all time running through my head. Something that I really want to share with my friends, family and the world! I'm talking about golden material, usually having to do with snow, ice, students, teaching, China life, etc. But by the time I reach home I have forgotten everything that I wanted to write! It's like waking up and having that dream still running through your head in vivid color, but as soon as you start to explain it to someone you realize that the details are actually quite fuzzy.
Anyway, I just wanted to tell Mike thanks for inspiring the blog, everyone else thanks for reading, and just know that there are so many great thoughts and comments that will never become blog posts! But we're trying...
We love you all! Thanks for reading. And if you have any specific questions about our lives here, leave a comment and we'll answer you in our next blog.
First off, this blog was inspired by Mike H., a friend of ours in California. I had told him of a few of Steve and I's future plans, and so he pulled me aside at the wedding and told me it would be a great idea to keep a blog. Not only for you all, the devoted readers, but also for ourselves. After all, it would be a terrible shame to forget everything that we had done/will be doing! I only wish I had started it earlier so that we could have chronicled our time in Eleuthera, Bahamas and Estes Park, CO and all of the little trips in between. But alas, it took moving to China to get it going. But I'd like to say thanks to Mike, because I really have enjoyed keeping this blog. And it's been a much better/easier medium than the mass e-mails I sent out a few years ago when I was in China.
But there is also one frustrating thing about the blog. It's not really blog specific so much as it's 'just how life is.' Here goes: often, I am walking down the street with the most brilliant commentary of all time running through my head. Something that I really want to share with my friends, family and the world! I'm talking about golden material, usually having to do with snow, ice, students, teaching, China life, etc. But by the time I reach home I have forgotten everything that I wanted to write! It's like waking up and having that dream still running through your head in vivid color, but as soon as you start to explain it to someone you realize that the details are actually quite fuzzy.
Anyway, I just wanted to tell Mike thanks for inspiring the blog, everyone else thanks for reading, and just know that there are so many great thoughts and comments that will never become blog posts! But we're trying...
We love you all! Thanks for reading. And if you have any specific questions about our lives here, leave a comment and we'll answer you in our next blog.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Our Doorbell
After we'd been here a week or two, we discovered that we had an awesome doorbell built into our outer door. You see, we have two front doors, the metal outer door and the nice looking wood inner door. And our prison-like outer door has a tiny red button on it that is our doorbell, of which I have provided a recording!
So head on over to Youtube and have a listen.
The doorbell says "你好. 请开门."
Translation: "Hello! Please open the door!"
Direct, yet friendly.
In other news, we made french toast this morning! Jaclyn says that the menu title would have been "Homestyle French Toast with Orange Zested Simple Syrup." I bought some brown sugar at the store for super cheap (less than a dollar for 500g), so we made our own syrup to go along with the french toast. Halfway through making it, Jaclyn spotted an orange that we needed to get rid of, so in went the orange juice. And the syrup turned out surprisingly well for just water, brown sugar, and orange juice. Yeehaw!It's snowing again this morning as well. Yay. Another slushy mess outside this week! And that's all for now. I have to save some of my brilliant material for later...
Monday, March 9, 2009
Check out the new pics
The long-awaited apartment pictures are hot and ready. Check out the link there on the right.
In other news, today was my first full day off in two weeks. After a long weekend of teaching, it's been a welcome break. We slept in, then decided to go try our hand at mastering the bus system. Or at least one bus line among the many, many different buses in the city. We got a link from another Sunshine teacher to an online bus route map, so we were able to figure out which bus we needed to go on to get to our destinations for the day, the Xuefu Book Store and the Metro [German Import Store]. So we hopped on the 209 bus and hoped for the best. We got off a stop too soon for the bookstore, but it was no big deal and we found this five-story book land pretty easily. Jaclyn picked up a couple of Chinese books to spur her studies. The fifth floor there houses all the English books, including zillions of books for Chinese folks learning English. I was hoping to find something to read when I've got nothing else to do, but they really only had "the classics" in English. Surprisingly, I wasn't in the mood for Jane Eyre, Sense and Sensibility, or David Copperfield, and so I walked out empty handed. Outside of the book store, we grabbed an interesting snack from a street vendor- it was a large crepe-like shell painted with egg stuff and red paste, folded over two pieces of bread, a hot dog, some potato shreds, and greens. And they were only 3 yuan each. So, two for less than one dollar. Not a bad price for lunch.
Next, we went over to the Metro to see what Western delights they had. Everything was wonderfully expensive, and the store wasn't as much of a paradise of unhealthy Western food as we thought it might be (or that it was in Dalian, says Jaclyn). My favorite irrationally expensive item was a six pack of Corona (not to be confused with "Cerono," a very well disguised knockoff that we've seen) for 225 yuan, or a bit north of $30. We did get a bottle of Chilean Cabernet there, since Chinese wine (called Great Wall) is probably best described as nasty, cheap dessert wine. So here's to hoping it fits the bill at all. We also got some spaghetti fixings, Chips Ahoy, and M&Ms to bolster our stash of chocolate (thank you Dawn!). Jaclyn and I are too cheap to splurge on too many expensive (though tasty and missed) Western yummies.
The picture in this post is just a random picture of the city that I took while Jaclyn and I were walking around, so...yeah.
Whelp, it's dinnertime. Adios.
Friday, March 6, 2009
We've been busy and sick
Hey guys!
Sorry it's been so long. I kept hoping that Steve would post something (it's totally his turn!) but alas... Anyway, there really isn't much to report because we've been so busy with school. Last Friday we finished our one month intensive TESOL training and this week we've been working on full schedules of 22 hours. Now, we (like you) were thinking that 22 hours would be a piece of cake, but when you do the math that actually means you have about 15 classes that you must write lesson plans for. So we've been busy writing lesson plans and then teaching class and writing more lesson plans! I got really sick the last week of our TESOL course (just a bad cold and a bit of fever) and couldn't kick it for a while. I finally started feeling much better yesterday but Steve and I both continue to cough and sniffle.
Our one year anniversary was on March 1st. I had to teach for 12 hours that day (Steve taught 5ish) and then we had to go to a dinner that was in honor of one of the teacher's who was leaving and several branch birthdays, including Steve's. So, not quite the 1 year we had in mind, but just looking through our last year of photos it's really quite hard to complain.
Our roommate moved out yesterday, so Steve and I took a break from lesson planning to rearrange and clean everything! We moved into his room, which is much smaller than ours, but it has boat loads of built-in cabinets that we were able to put our clothes in. Up until this point, those clothes that couldn't fit in the very small wardrobe have been laying in folded piles on the floor (or messy heaps half in a suitcase if you're a certain someone...). We feel so much better having them folded neatly on shelves and in cabinets. I was also finally able to deep clean the bathroom and discover that both our bathtub and sink were yellow, not gray. So we did a lot of sweeping and a lot of putting things in cabinets and on shelves that we were unable to do up until now because of our roommate. And let me tell you, I feel soo much better! I love being able to nest as soon as I get somewhere but I had to wait over a month this time! Ahh. So I guess that means we are finally ready to take some pictures of the apartment and post them. I have to go to class right now, so I don't have time, but we'll definitely get apartment photos up soon.
Hey, does anyone want to teach my class of 4-5 year olds? We're doing colors today!! No...? Nobody...? OK, I guess I better go then.
Sorry it's been so long. I kept hoping that Steve would post something (it's totally his turn!) but alas... Anyway, there really isn't much to report because we've been so busy with school. Last Friday we finished our one month intensive TESOL training and this week we've been working on full schedules of 22 hours. Now, we (like you) were thinking that 22 hours would be a piece of cake, but when you do the math that actually means you have about 15 classes that you must write lesson plans for. So we've been busy writing lesson plans and then teaching class and writing more lesson plans! I got really sick the last week of our TESOL course (just a bad cold and a bit of fever) and couldn't kick it for a while. I finally started feeling much better yesterday but Steve and I both continue to cough and sniffle.
Our one year anniversary was on March 1st. I had to teach for 12 hours that day (Steve taught 5ish) and then we had to go to a dinner that was in honor of one of the teacher's who was leaving and several branch birthdays, including Steve's. So, not quite the 1 year we had in mind, but just looking through our last year of photos it's really quite hard to complain.
Our roommate moved out yesterday, so Steve and I took a break from lesson planning to rearrange and clean everything! We moved into his room, which is much smaller than ours, but it has boat loads of built-in cabinets that we were able to put our clothes in. Up until this point, those clothes that couldn't fit in the very small wardrobe have been laying in folded piles on the floor (or messy heaps half in a suitcase if you're a certain someone...). We feel so much better having them folded neatly on shelves and in cabinets. I was also finally able to deep clean the bathroom and discover that both our bathtub and sink were yellow, not gray. So we did a lot of sweeping and a lot of putting things in cabinets and on shelves that we were unable to do up until now because of our roommate. And let me tell you, I feel soo much better! I love being able to nest as soon as I get somewhere but I had to wait over a month this time! Ahh. So I guess that means we are finally ready to take some pictures of the apartment and post them. I have to go to class right now, so I don't have time, but we'll definitely get apartment photos up soon.
Hey, does anyone want to teach my class of 4-5 year olds? We're doing colors today!! No...? Nobody...? OK, I guess I better go then.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Links
Just wanted to point out a few of the links to the right------->
I have added a picture album of all of the pictures we've taken here so far. There aren't many and they're not very informative but it's something to look at! Our pre-China/post-marriage pictures are also up if you haven't seen those already.
Also, the Will-Excel TESOL blog link is there. That is the program we are doing our training with. They've just started this blog and have been updating it regularly with our class's progress. There are some pictures of us at dinners and classes, so go on over and look at those if you're interested.
I have added a picture album of all of the pictures we've taken here so far. There aren't many and they're not very informative but it's something to look at! Our pre-China/post-marriage pictures are also up if you haven't seen those already.
Also, the Will-Excel TESOL blog link is there. That is the program we are doing our training with. They've just started this blog and have been updating it regularly with our class's progress. There are some pictures of us at dinners and classes, so go on over and look at those if you're interested.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Induced snow... only in China
Click on the title for a great story about the wonders of Chinese science.
The end of the article discusses the difficulties that Beijing cab drivers are having driving in the snow, which brings me to a point about Harbin drivers.... they are amazing! It has been snowing a lot in Harbin lately (it's snowing right now!), so most mornings when we go out there is a thin layer of snow on the ground with a thin layer of ice underneath. The same goes for the streets: snow and ice. At every stop light you can witness drivers sliding to a stop, e-brakes pulled, and city buses spinning their wheels trying to get going again. But really, they are quite good at driving on the ice. I suppose because they have come to expect that sinking sensation you get when your car starts to slide and have adapted to ignore that fear and just make it happen.
Of course, by the end of every day the city has sent a sufficient number of work crews out to manually remove the ice and snow from the streets. On our way home from school we normally witness several of these crews chipping away at stubborn patches of ice, usually in the middle of a 4 lane road, with shovels and scrapers and someone nearby with a large broom to sweep it to the curb. And wouldn't you know it, they're all out there the next day doing it again. As you can see, China has solved two problems in one go: 1. They have created job security for hundreds of folks and 2. They have saved the city money because Harbin doesn't need to buy snow equipment and salt.
The end of the article discusses the difficulties that Beijing cab drivers are having driving in the snow, which brings me to a point about Harbin drivers.... they are amazing! It has been snowing a lot in Harbin lately (it's snowing right now!), so most mornings when we go out there is a thin layer of snow on the ground with a thin layer of ice underneath. The same goes for the streets: snow and ice. At every stop light you can witness drivers sliding to a stop, e-brakes pulled, and city buses spinning their wheels trying to get going again. But really, they are quite good at driving on the ice. I suppose because they have come to expect that sinking sensation you get when your car starts to slide and have adapted to ignore that fear and just make it happen.
Of course, by the end of every day the city has sent a sufficient number of work crews out to manually remove the ice and snow from the streets. On our way home from school we normally witness several of these crews chipping away at stubborn patches of ice, usually in the middle of a 4 lane road, with shovels and scrapers and someone nearby with a large broom to sweep it to the curb. And wouldn't you know it, they're all out there the next day doing it again. As you can see, China has solved two problems in one go: 1. They have created job security for hundreds of folks and 2. They have saved the city money because Harbin doesn't need to buy snow equipment and salt.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Musings
So here are a few things rattling around in my head:
0. Click here for a good story
1. Last week we had a bit of a 'warm spell' wherein temperatures were regularly above freezing at midday. I wore my pea coat and only one pair of socks every day and occasionally I was hot! Well, apparently that was an Indian Summer... Currently it is -8F with a high of 15F tomorrow afternoon (and that is sounding pleasant).
2. Steve and I have a third roomie for this first month. FYI, you should never live, work AND go to school with someone (unless you're married to them). And even then some people would have trouble, but Steve and I actually work together quite well!
3. When the most powerful police man within a hundred miles of your town owns the language school at which you are employed, things happen. Yesterday Steve and I got our one year work visa without saying more than 2 words to the guy with the stamp.
4. Flexibility is a trait that I believe I possess. However, every time I come to China my capacity for adapting and flexing increases tenfold.
5. If you would like to learn another language consider becoming a cab driver. Steve and I took a taxi this weekend and the driver spoke English amazingly well. Impeccable pronunciation, advanced listening skills and a large vocabulary. He did not study at a school. In fact, he just has a set of cards with phrasal translations. He can say things like, "I need a new job. I'm sick of waiting in lines. I'm sick of people asking me for money. My daughter is 16 years old. I like beer. I drank 5 bottles." I'm not sure when he had drunk the five bottles of beer though. Perhaps that could be considered as another job perk...
6. Chinese people pick great English names. I might write a baby naming book called So You Want an Asian English Name. It would include such classics as Thank, Monkey, Candy, Icy, Azure and Hero. And who could forget those ear catching originals, Mechanic and Toenail?
7. The driver that our school employs to drag us around to the various branches of Sunshine Language School (there are 4 branches) thinks my Chinese is great. It's not and he's just being polite, but it's still nice to hear occasionally. Actually, I think he was just shocked that I could speak Chinese since I had ridden around in his van for about a week and a half before I began conversing with him. He gave Steve some sage advice: While you live in Harbin you should not drink [alcohol]. Otherwise, you will begin looking at Chinese women and get a Chinese girlfriend. I think Steve wrote it down somewhere so he wouldn't forget.
8. Some people have asked for our address. I tried to post it here on our blog, but it was unsuccessful. So if you need our address just shoot one of us an e-mail and we'll send it to you.
9. We just got a phone call to let us know that classes aren't starting until noon tomorrow! So Steve and I are NOT going to miss yet another Clemson basketball game! We get to watch it online. Let's hope it's not another Virginia...
10. We love you all. We'll try and take some pictures soon so that we can post them.
0. Click here for a good story
1. Last week we had a bit of a 'warm spell' wherein temperatures were regularly above freezing at midday. I wore my pea coat and only one pair of socks every day and occasionally I was hot! Well, apparently that was an Indian Summer... Currently it is -8F with a high of 15F tomorrow afternoon (and that is sounding pleasant).
2. Steve and I have a third roomie for this first month. FYI, you should never live, work AND go to school with someone (unless you're married to them). And even then some people would have trouble, but Steve and I actually work together quite well!
3. When the most powerful police man within a hundred miles of your town owns the language school at which you are employed, things happen. Yesterday Steve and I got our one year work visa without saying more than 2 words to the guy with the stamp.
4. Flexibility is a trait that I believe I possess. However, every time I come to China my capacity for adapting and flexing increases tenfold.
5. If you would like to learn another language consider becoming a cab driver. Steve and I took a taxi this weekend and the driver spoke English amazingly well. Impeccable pronunciation, advanced listening skills and a large vocabulary. He did not study at a school. In fact, he just has a set of cards with phrasal translations. He can say things like, "I need a new job. I'm sick of waiting in lines. I'm sick of people asking me for money. My daughter is 16 years old. I like beer. I drank 5 bottles." I'm not sure when he had drunk the five bottles of beer though. Perhaps that could be considered as another job perk...
6. Chinese people pick great English names. I might write a baby naming book called So You Want an Asian English Name. It would include such classics as Thank, Monkey, Candy, Icy, Azure and Hero. And who could forget those ear catching originals, Mechanic and Toenail?
7. The driver that our school employs to drag us around to the various branches of Sunshine Language School (there are 4 branches) thinks my Chinese is great. It's not and he's just being polite, but it's still nice to hear occasionally. Actually, I think he was just shocked that I could speak Chinese since I had ridden around in his van for about a week and a half before I began conversing with him. He gave Steve some sage advice: While you live in Harbin you should not drink [alcohol]. Otherwise, you will begin looking at Chinese women and get a Chinese girlfriend. I think Steve wrote it down somewhere so he wouldn't forget.
8. Some people have asked for our address. I tried to post it here on our blog, but it was unsuccessful. So if you need our address just shoot one of us an e-mail and we'll send it to you.
9. We just got a phone call to let us know that classes aren't starting until noon tomorrow! So Steve and I are NOT going to miss yet another Clemson basketball game! We get to watch it online. Let's hope it's not another Virginia...
10. We love you all. We'll try and take some pictures soon so that we can post them.
Friday, February 13, 2009
A Map
For the visual learners among us, here's a link to the Google Map with the little pointer right on our apartment. It doesn't get any more exact than this, folks. Go ahead, take a little Google Maps tour of our area... You might notice there's a few other apartment buildings around ours (note the sarcasm here)- welcome to the land of 1.33 billion people!
I enjoyed finding our apartment on there. If you go up (NNE) the street adjacent to our apartment (on the east side), you'll get to the major/bigger road, Zhong Shan Lu. Hang a left on that, go to the next intersection, and on your right is the building containing one of the branches of the California Sunshine Language School which is where we teach. Almost due east of us on the big road (Zhong Shan) is the supermarket where we shop. If you go up Zhong Shan past our school to the next big road and take a right, continue a bit and on your right is the Dragon Tower that I posted picture of earlier.
I think that's about all the good I can tell you about on the map. Speaking of maps, though, I must tell you about how fantastic the driving is here. Many would come and say it's "insane" or "crazy," but I'm here to preach of the positive qualities of the driving experience. Though many traffic rules are thrown to the wind, everyone gets where they need to go. That's the great thing, you just go where you're going to go, with little regard for much else. The one rule that governs most things is that the first person to a spot is the one who gets right of way. Things like "cutting people off," "turning right in front of people," and "narrowly avoiding collision at all times" are in no way negative here. But the great thing is that everyone keeps moving. It's like one big highly synchronized fusion of transportation. I may seem satirical in this, but I actually really think it's effective.
The other side of this is the game of Frogger you get to play whenever crossing a street. Jaclyn and I have become highly skilled in our short time here. We mustn't be worried that cars will hit us. They're just going to keep moving and expect us to do likewise, often with little margin for error. Everyone trusts that the other will keep moving, and it works out pretty well. We've timed our big intersection that we cross every day and have a great knowledge of which direction all threats will be approaching. The expression "He who hesitates is lost" is our guiding force, though words like "flat" or "severed" might go better in place of "lost." But it is pretty fun.
It has gotten cold again, with highs in the teens or lower for the next while. No big whoop.
I haven't taken any new pictures, so you get more old ones. That's Jaclyn in a McDonalds warming up after a cold tour of the city, and myself in front of my animal, an ox.
Til later....
I enjoyed finding our apartment on there. If you go up (NNE) the street adjacent to our apartment (on the east side), you'll get to the major/bigger road, Zhong Shan Lu. Hang a left on that, go to the next intersection, and on your right is the building containing one of the branches of the California Sunshine Language School which is where we teach. Almost due east of us on the big road (Zhong Shan) is the supermarket where we shop. If you go up Zhong Shan past our school to the next big road and take a right, continue a bit and on your right is the Dragon Tower that I posted picture of earlier.
I think that's about all the good I can tell you about on the map. Speaking of maps, though, I must tell you about how fantastic the driving is here. Many would come and say it's "insane" or "crazy," but I'm here to preach of the positive qualities of the driving experience. Though many traffic rules are thrown to the wind, everyone gets where they need to go. That's the great thing, you just go where you're going to go, with little regard for much else. The one rule that governs most things is that the first person to a spot is the one who gets right of way. Things like "cutting people off," "turning right in front of people," and "narrowly avoiding collision at all times" are in no way negative here. But the great thing is that everyone keeps moving. It's like one big highly synchronized fusion of transportation. I may seem satirical in this, but I actually really think it's effective.
The other side of this is the game of Frogger you get to play whenever crossing a street. Jaclyn and I have become highly skilled in our short time here. We mustn't be worried that cars will hit us. They're just going to keep moving and expect us to do likewise, often with little margin for error. Everyone trusts that the other will keep moving, and it works out pretty well. We've timed our big intersection that we cross every day and have a great knowledge of which direction all threats will be approaching. The expression "He who hesitates is lost" is our guiding force, though words like "flat" or "severed" might go better in place of "lost." But it is pretty fun.
It has gotten cold again, with highs in the teens or lower for the next while. No big whoop.
I haven't taken any new pictures, so you get more old ones. That's Jaclyn in a McDonalds warming up after a cold tour of the city, and myself in front of my animal, an ox.
Til later....
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Happy Birthday!
I just wanted everyone to know that today (or yesterday... dates are really screwy around here) is (was?) my Grandma's birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!
She's a ripe old 35 today, so if you see her wish her well.
We love you Gma *kisses*
She's a ripe old 35 today, so if you see her wish her well.
We love you Gma *kisses*
Monday, February 9, 2009
WWIII
We're now in the 15th hour of the apparently ceaseless shelling/bombing/general exploding of Harbin. It's too early for anyone to have named this event, but let it be known that the IndoHarbinian War of Twenty Ought-Nine has begun. Jaclyn and I have remained hunkered down here in our concrete-walled safehouse save for a brief trip to the triage for some visa-related medical checks. It's been a rough day for sure, and the outlook for the evening remains grim considering the rocket's red glare we continue to see out our windows.
Okay, short story is that the Lantern Festival is today and to the Chineseman, this means an obvious calling to shoot off every firework he could get his hands on. It's amazing the continuity and frequency with which the fireworks have been exploding all day. Add to that the noise of the car alarms, and it really does seem like a warzone here. It's incredible. AND in China one doesn't have to go to a large, open area to shoot off fireworks- in fact, the closer to the buildings the better! As such, we've had a killer view of the fireworks no more than 10 or so yards from our window! It's been pure, unbridled pandemonium today in Harbin. It just can't be harped on enough----- THERE'S BEEN TONS AND TONS OF FIREWORKS SHOT TODAY. ALL DAY. EVERY MINUTE. EVERY SECOND.
Okay, I'm done.
Also, Jaclyn and I had our "medical checks" today, AKA please the Chinese guys in white coats and get your two dozen red stamps so that they'll give you a work visa. We had a blood sample taken and an x-ray (???? of our lungs ??????) [kinda] done, so up goes our chances of cancer and any variety of blood-borne pathogen. Just kidding. We think (Parents stop worrying).
Well, the task before us is sleeping in the warzone. Wish us luck.
Okay, short story is that the Lantern Festival is today and to the Chineseman, this means an obvious calling to shoot off every firework he could get his hands on. It's amazing the continuity and frequency with which the fireworks have been exploding all day. Add to that the noise of the car alarms, and it really does seem like a warzone here. It's incredible. AND in China one doesn't have to go to a large, open area to shoot off fireworks- in fact, the closer to the buildings the better! As such, we've had a killer view of the fireworks no more than 10 or so yards from our window! It's been pure, unbridled pandemonium today in Harbin. It just can't be harped on enough----- THERE'S BEEN TONS AND TONS OF FIREWORKS SHOT TODAY. ALL DAY. EVERY MINUTE. EVERY SECOND.
Okay, I'm done.
Also, Jaclyn and I had our "medical checks" today, AKA please the Chinese guys in white coats and get your two dozen red stamps so that they'll give you a work visa. We had a blood sample taken and an x-ray (???? of our lungs ??????) [kinda] done, so up goes our chances of cancer and any variety of blood-borne pathogen. Just kidding. We think (Parents stop worrying).
Well, the task before us is sleeping in the warzone. Wish us luck.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Shopping
Steve and I just experienced our first bustling Harbin morning! After sleeping in for the first time since we've been here (that felt good!), we got up to go to the store. It is a beautiful day out, and it's exceptionally warm (32 F right now), so Steve finally got to witness some of the China that I'd been missing... street vendors! There were people all along the streets hawking their wares, goods, and foods and just about every Chinese person was out doing their Sunday morning chores.
Actually, just about everyone was in the fruit and vegetable section of the supermarket! So we fought our way through crowds to get bags for our produce, then fought our way through crowds to get our produce, then fought our way through crowds to have our produce weighed and priced, then fought our way through crowds to get the hell out of the fruit and vegetable section! We found everything we had gone to the store for and at the check out a nice college aged boy was our checker. He asked us in Chinese where we were from and Steve said, "What?" So then he asked us in English. He told us that America was a very beautiful city (yes he said city, but it was a very good try and clearly spoken). I asked him in Chinese if he had been there before and he said no. He then welcomed us to China. It was great! Since all of that was going on we barely noticed how much we paid, and then when we got back out to the street Steve said, "All of that just cost us about $12." Here's what we got:
12 pack of pocket sized tissues
1 large bottle of soy sauce
Crushed red peppers
Metal Cooking Spatula
Metal Cooking spoon
Pack of strawberries
2 onions
3 heads of garlic
5 bananas
3 pears
5 oranges
Big bag of rice
5 pack of Ramen
~2 dozen eggs
Life is good.
Actually, just about everyone was in the fruit and vegetable section of the supermarket! So we fought our way through crowds to get bags for our produce, then fought our way through crowds to get our produce, then fought our way through crowds to have our produce weighed and priced, then fought our way through crowds to get the hell out of the fruit and vegetable section! We found everything we had gone to the store for and at the check out a nice college aged boy was our checker. He asked us in Chinese where we were from and Steve said, "What?" So then he asked us in English. He told us that America was a very beautiful city (yes he said city, but it was a very good try and clearly spoken). I asked him in Chinese if he had been there before and he said no. He then welcomed us to China. It was great! Since all of that was going on we barely noticed how much we paid, and then when we got back out to the street Steve said, "All of that just cost us about $12." Here's what we got:
12 pack of pocket sized tissues
1 large bottle of soy sauce
Crushed red peppers
Metal Cooking Spatula
Metal Cooking spoon
Pack of strawberries
2 onions
3 heads of garlic
5 bananas
3 pears
5 oranges
Big bag of rice
5 pack of Ramen
~2 dozen eggs
Life is good.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Teaching today...
So Jaclyn and I are both teaching our first classes today. Yes, we've haven't even been here a week, but that apparently doesn't disqualify us from the opportunity to fill in for a couple of teachers who are on vacation. Jaclyn's currently teaching two classes of primary school children (I guess 7-10 years old), and I'm teaching some older folks (high school and university) later today. After my observations this week, though, I'm not too worried. Jaclyn had very thorough lesson plans (something I don't have quite yet..) and should thus be excellent and relaxed.
Oh!!! A side note- Our neighbor just began playing his/her piano, practicing the same piece he/she's been working on all week! At least it's a pretty good selection and the player is pretty talented. Also, it sounds like a real piano (not a keyboard), which leads me to wonder how in the world they got a piano up to the eighth floor with no elevator. Welcome to China, the land of excessive labor! In every store there's way too many employees wanting to offer you advice, and for every public works project... well, there's another group of people doing something else such as clearing the ice off the sidewalks or anywhere else there's ice (everywhere). 1.3 billion people + we need jobs for everyone = someone doing every job imaginable at any given time!
That was a long side note.
Speaking of the ice, it's all the way up to 32 degrees today! And it's sunny! Yes Darcy, most days are NOT sunny. That day in the pictures and today have been the two. Most days there's smog/clouds (or maybe just smogclouds) blocking our view of the sky. But considering the heat today, a good bit of the "urban permafrost" is melting off.
It's the weekend, so we don't have class until Tuesday, so that's nice. All else we've been doing is eating lots of [Chinese] food. I guess eventually it will just be food, but for now it still feels like Chinese food. We did eat some KFC the other day because we were there and it was dinnertime, and Jaclyn did find some Chocolate Stripe Skippy peanut butter, but it's mostly been Chinese cuisine for us.
I've got to finish my lesson plans for class now. We'll be talking about cars today, so my class will hear about the best piece of automotive machinery in the world, that being the 1992 Honda Accord.
The two pictures are (1) The Dragon Tower, Asia's tallest standing steel tower, complete with a restaurant at the top; and (2) Some Chinese recreation on the frozen river here in Harbin. I did also get a picture of the sleds that come with dogs attached for the lazier people out there, but I won't post it because PETA might shut me down.
zaijian!
Friday, February 6, 2009
For Darcy
I would like Ms. Darcy Coover to know that I just finished eating a Skippy Chocolate Stripe PB sandwich.
That is all.
That is all.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Cold!
So it's a new kind of freezing here. It's unbelievably China cold. It's freeze your face off, punch you in the gut cold. It all makes sense that there are ice sculptures all around the city (see left), because it's just so cold that they sure aren't going anywhere. But everyone says it's going to do nothing but get warmer now! And the high is a tropical 28 degrees. So we're on the up and up. And as Jaclyn said, we had the easiest traveling experience ever. It was just fantastically simple. And now we've been thrust into the fabulous world of learning to teach TESOL.And everything here is just so amazingly "China."
This picture of Jaclyn and I has us in front of an Iwo-Jima-esque monument here in Harbin celebrating their defeat of the floodwaters that used to flood the city. "Yes! We built flood control walls and have conquered mother nature herself!"We've got to go to school now! Down the eight flights of stairs and through the bitter cold, that is. Yeehaw!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
We made it... and we're busy!
So after the most flawless 27 hours of traveling we've ever experienced, Steve and I made it safe and sound to our apartment in Harbin. We settled in for a few hours and then embarked on a short tour of our surrounding area. We were doing pretty well but ended up passing out by about 6:00PM! Of course, we were laying wide awake in bed by about 4:00AM the next morning. Oy, jetlag.
Our internet access was not working until about 5 minutes ago, so I decided I would update first thing to ease any concerns. Not that we've really had time anyway! We have been nonstop in orientation, training, and Mandarin Chinese lessons. Last night we had a great welcome dinner with a lot of the staff from the school where we'll be teaching and yesterday afternoon had a walking and driving tour of the city which was great! It looks like Harbin should be a fun place to explore. Oh, and it is as cold as we were expecting!! We all nearly froze to death walking around the city yesterday, but we're learning to put on way more layers than you think you need. The biggest shock was when they told us we had class(es) to teach this weekend! Steve is out observing a class right now, taking notes, and preparing for his first lesson on Friday or Saturday. I have two classes back to back to teach on Saturday.. intense!
We have 8 others in our program, including people from Australia, New Zealand, England, America, Canada, and South Africa. The guy from South Africa (Shaun) is our roommate for the first month until some of the other teachers move away and there is an open apartment for him. He's hilarious and we're having a lot of fun with him! In fact, all of our classmates are great, which is so nice. Nobody is negative, culturally insensitive, or shy so we have a great dynamic in the training classes.
I'm meeting Steve at the school when he's done observing his class and then we're going shopping. We haven't had time to buy food or anything for our apartment, so we're going to be getting as much as we can carry home of that tonight. Anyway, I'm going to use the rest of my free time right now to organize my stuff a little bit better. Comment on this blog or send an e-mail if you have any questions.
We love you all!!
Our internet access was not working until about 5 minutes ago, so I decided I would update first thing to ease any concerns. Not that we've really had time anyway! We have been nonstop in orientation, training, and Mandarin Chinese lessons. Last night we had a great welcome dinner with a lot of the staff from the school where we'll be teaching and yesterday afternoon had a walking and driving tour of the city which was great! It looks like Harbin should be a fun place to explore. Oh, and it is as cold as we were expecting!! We all nearly froze to death walking around the city yesterday, but we're learning to put on way more layers than you think you need. The biggest shock was when they told us we had class(es) to teach this weekend! Steve is out observing a class right now, taking notes, and preparing for his first lesson on Friday or Saturday. I have two classes back to back to teach on Saturday.. intense!
We have 8 others in our program, including people from Australia, New Zealand, England, America, Canada, and South Africa. The guy from South Africa (Shaun) is our roommate for the first month until some of the other teachers move away and there is an open apartment for him. He's hilarious and we're having a lot of fun with him! In fact, all of our classmates are great, which is so nice. Nobody is negative, culturally insensitive, or shy so we have a great dynamic in the training classes.
I'm meeting Steve at the school when he's done observing his class and then we're going shopping. We haven't had time to buy food or anything for our apartment, so we're going to be getting as much as we can carry home of that tonight. Anyway, I'm going to use the rest of my free time right now to organize my stuff a little bit better. Comment on this blog or send an e-mail if you have any questions.
We love you all!!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Soon.
So, we're leaving in exactly one week. Chew on that.
I thought I should go ahead and post something here before we leave. I'm the other guy posting and the one who hasn't been to China yet. Howdy!
-Steve
I thought I should go ahead and post something here before we leave. I'm the other guy posting and the one who hasn't been to China yet. Howdy!
-Steve
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Yep.... we're officially bloggers now
Hey friends and family! We want everyone to stay updated and feel connected to us while we're thousands of miles away, so we have decided to start this blog. We'll post pictures and stories here instead of sending mass e-mails, so whenever you want to see our pretty faces just head on over to spanglersinchina.blogspot.com! You can also "subscribe" to our blog to receive instant updates on your computer whenever we add a post or pictures. (If you're unsure how to do this or what it means then send Steve or I an e-mail and we'll explain it to you.)
So we're leaving for China on January 30th, arriving in Harbin on February 1st and starting our jobs on the 2nd! We're really excited and can't wait to share our stories with everyone!
-Steve and Jaclyn
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