I'm with the high schoolers now, which is harder work - I would definitely be lost without Betty's help - but I can also talk about political subjects sometimes. One of my older classes was so good I could actually lecture them on the arguments for/against No Child Left Behind, and they seemed interested about it. Anyway, one of my favorite subjects to talk about, especially now that my kids aren't quite as advanced, is travel. It's kind of funny though, because I think I know more about a lot of things, even within China, than the students. Most of them have never even been outside of Zhejiang province, and in about two weeks, after I go to Beijing and Hong Kong, I will be better travelled than practically all of them.
Yesterday, I asked my students to write a short essay about China or something in China. Three of the best essays were about Hainan island, noting (all of them) that it's the second largest island in China (after Taiwan), and that it has a good flower market, and good scuba diving. So I asked how many people had actually been to Hainan, and nobody raised their hand. Apparently they had learned about these things on the internet, or in classes, or something.
An even more amusing episode was when I asked one class if anybody had ever been outside China. One student raised his hand, and said he had been to Taiwan. I kind of waited, and the other students started laughing at him. I would love to go and teach them blasphemous things, but I might lose my job. It's probably very easy to do in private though. I would just love it if Charlie would take us on our tour of Beijing - "please, tell me more about Tiananmen Square. What else do you know? I'm in a learning mood today." I don't want to do that to our UCE guy who will probably be leading the tour, though, because I don't want to get anybody in trouble. Charlie was so much fun because he actually worked for the government - fair game in my book.
Anyway, I'm getting better at being independent, which is good, because I don't really know how much assistance I will get at my long-term school. Betty's been helping me a lot with my Chinese - and you really can't learn it without somebody to talk to. I've been eating outside of campus a lot by myself, which involves taking a taxi into town. The first time I did that though, I walked into this one restaurant that looked a little bit fancier, but no Western food, so I assumed it couldn't be too much more expensive than a regular place. It was confusing though becuase there wasn't really a menu - often times there are pictures, but I can even read enough characters to make do without the pictures. Usually I end up ordering, ironically enough, (Indian) curry fried rice. Anyway, the place I ended up at turned out to be a gourmet fish place, and they didn't have menus because there was really only one thing - really expensive fish. So I ended up with 94 yuan worth of way more fish than I could possibly eat (you're supposed to come with friends; I pleaded with them to only give me half a fish, but I don't think they usually do that.) So after that I have been sticking to the places I know, which are mostly cafeteria - type places. They are very good, and very cheap, but they mostly serve rice and noodles. I still haven't figured out how to get main courses - probably the best meal I've had since I've been here has been some spicy Sichuan tofu that I got for 5 yuan, but with the help of a Chinese assistant - and now I'm a little bit scared to try.
Anyway, yesterday I discovered peanut butter, which I don't particularly eat in the states, but it was so good I started eating it straight from the jar. Someone mentioned to me a while back that in some of the more modern places you can get peanut butter, and I didn't really think anything of it because I don't eat peanut butter. But there are precious few sources of fats in the Chinese diet. The other way to get it is in pizza, but there isn't even really any pizza in Haining. Fortunately, in the town where I'm going, I hear there is a Pizza Hut, and a McDonalds (which I also wouldn't go near in the states, but they are one of the only places where you can get ice cream that tastes good.) Anyway, enough rambling, I'm signing off for now. Four high school classes a day is a lot more than four elementary school classes...
Friday, August 17, 2007
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