Crazy Spin Class and Sports Day

I bought a gym membership about 2 weeks ago.  799Yuan for 10 months, roughly $13 a month!  Not bad right?  They have a hip hop dance class, yoga class, belly dancing, spin class and of course a sauna.  Which I have ever intention of using in the winter.  But I still hadn't been to the gym once, they actually called me to ask if I would be coming, talk about pressure.  But Teresa and Marilyn were planning on going to spin class, I figured "eh why not, I don't want to lose my biking muscles."  So I went to the gym, I was completely unprepared for the disco extravaganza that awaited me.  I walked into the spin room, and had to bother the teacher to adjust a seat for me, all the bikes were so short!!  Then when the class was ready to start the lights went down and the blue Christmas lights started to flash in time with the pounding techno.  Our crazy Chinese instructor was bouncing up and down on her bike so energetic.  I will totally admit I could not keep up!  But I made it through class!  It was really really fun!  My favorite was for the fast portion she played a techno version of the William Tell Overture.  That kept going faster and faster.  I have never sweat so much in my life!  Fantastic class, made all the better by the mango smoothie afterwards.

I woke up the next day refreshed and ready for Sports Day!  My classes have been canceled for the next two days!  While the students do a giant track meet, all the Senior 1 classes will be competing against each other.  The Senior 2s will be competing against the other Senior 2 classes.  The Senior 3s are a part of the opening ceremony but they have to study for their Gao Kao!  So I woke up early and hit the track at 7:30 watching all the students get lined up!  It was impressive.  There are somewhere between 3,000 to 4,000 students at Yi Zhong!  Once the ceremony got started I was blown away, each class marched in lines past the platform where the administrators sat.  They marched in military form, all of the students wearing matching outfits.  Either their uniforms or a class shirt or sweatshirt!

Misty's class are holding flowers in the front, flags in the back

I cannot begin to describe how crazy this was, my classes when they walked past me would sneak in a wave here or there.  They then walked out on the soccer field and lined up.  Each of the 22 Senior 1 classes, the 21 Senior 2 classes and the 19 Senior 3 classes marched by.  Even though I did not know the Senior 2's they were really fun to watch as some of the classes had a class shirt.  One class all wore plaid shirts even the head teacher!  I have to say one of the things I like about the school here in China is the way they build team work by giving students one class that is their's for the whole time they are at the school.  So the classes get very close.  Misty (one of the head teachers and an English Teacher) came and stood by me.  She helped to translate some of the banners.  She proudly pointed out that her students were special.  They were holding some of the flags and flowers, instead of marching as a class.  There was another class with hers that had this honor.  Once all the of the classes had gone by they lined up on the field.  I have never seen anything that impressed me more.  Each Senior 1 class had a red flag with their class number on it, each Senior 2 class had a yellow flag with their class number on it, and each Senior 3 class had a blue flag with their class number on it.  Misty and I were laughing at the differences in attitude between the classes.  The nervous energy of the Senior 1s was palpable, they cared. They really tried to march in step, the Senior 2s were more ambivalent, a few classes were very proud and took this very seriously.  Finally the Senior 3s who did not care as they weren't allowed to race anyways!  A bit cruel making them be a part of the opening ceremony.  But once that was done, and some speeches were given the students parted to clear a spot on the field.  Then the students with swords did a demonstration of their karate, it was amazing.  Then a dance group took the field, they looked way to old to be students here, but they did some amazing hip hop.  Then everything dissolved and students went and found a place to sit.  For each event each class has one runner.  So many students get to hang out today and do nothing!  It was wonderful to see my students relaxing and taking a break for once.  Even the teachers were relaxing!  Amanda, the English Teacher who aided me in getting tickets to Beijing brought her youngest.

Misty, me and Amanda

I walked around saw my students, took hundreds of pictures!  It was nice to see so many happy people!  The students get two days for sports day and then a week off for National Week!  October 1st is China's version of the 4th of July!  After a lunch break I taught some students to throw a frisbee and taught them the basics of Ultimate!  They enjoyed it.  The second half of sports day was slightly muted by the arrival of some mist and light sprinkling.  Tomorrow I teach at my primary school in the morning, and then come back to run a teacher relay race tomorrow!!  Wish me Luck!

Teaching is my Life

I had a thought a last night as I sat grading papers in my pjs.  I am a born teacher, when am I happiest when my students understand what I am trying to say and what I am trying to teach.  Teaching seniors it is fun to see them light up when I tell them about students in America, and asking them what they think only to have them respond with something that is way more advanced than I am expecting.  Teaching primary is fun because everything is new and exciting.  You show them blue and they get really excited.  But really, moving here and teaching I could not be happier! I am mostly writing this so when I have a day where China is kicking my ass I will look back and remember!

Sports are an International Language

For those of you who are thinking of possibly moving to another country for a period of time, I recommend you pick up a sport!  Basketball, Soccer, Frisbee or something.  I have met so many people by just kicking around a ball on the field.  Or asking students if I can throw their basketball!  Today was a sports heavy day and it has given me the resolve to do something active everyday!  I feel so much more alive after I have been moving around!  Saturday was me grading, all day!  Going to get train tickets with a friend, and then grading!  I was so low energy and just down it was hard to motivate!  The next day I slept in and worked on my grades a bit more, then got my but together to go out to the field an hour before soccer was to start.  I was mostly looking for food, but I brought my frisbee!  I ate some spicy fried cauliflower!  Which was amazing!

Teresa's Frisbee Team's Captain Reddick

Teresa's Frisbee Friends!

But then I started wandering around, I tossed the frisbee with some students from my class before they ran off to lunch.  Then I shot some hoops with other students, then P Squat and I tossed the frisbee.  Two guys joined us and we taught them how to toss a frisbee.  Frisbee is not a common thing here I guess, no one seems to know how to throw it.  Except for Teresa's Frisbee crowd, who are oh so much fun!  And I love running into them around town.  But them Michaela, Roo, P Squat and I settled in to do some drills.  People were watching but wouldn't join.  So after a bit, Roo and I ran over and started a game with some of the soccer players at Yi Zhong!  Good fun was had by all.  I returned to work, with a fresh mind and hammered out one whole lesson plan and my power point!  Then I went back out to the field, met a man Liu Zhang (who I think is a teacher or possibly a soccer coach at Yi Zhong)  who kicked the ball around with me.  We were ganged by a group of adorable boys (around 7 to 10), who joined us and we played keep away and took turns taking shots.  Although this was fun I am worried I have put my self in a situation.  Liu said he wants to treat me to food next time we play!  So we will see what happens!

But the long of the short is, play sports.  Meet people!  It is fun, good for you and you don't need to communicate that well to understand they want to play!

I'm not in America Anymore

Obviously I am no longer in America, but living in a big city it is so easy to have a similar enough lifestyle that sometimes I forget.  Then I hear someone saying "Waiguoren" and I remember.  But today at my primary school I definitely remembered I was not in America anymore.  I woke up late chugged some green tea to give me a kick and then went to school.  I walked past the children doing PE.  Which is a story in and of it's self.  Then I went to my office to drop stuff off before going back downstairs to go to the bathroom.  I was told to bring my stuff because the office wasn't safe.. so so much for that.

These are the bathrooms at Yi Zhong but similar design to the ones at the primary school.  No doors, medium sized walls separating you from the other people in the bathroom as you squat above a trench that is flushed with water.  So the bathrooms at the primary school are similar.  I rushed to the bathroom trying to make it to the bathroom before PE ended and all the students would go.  I was going pee and I heard voices and sure enough a group of my students streamed in and said "Hello Patty."  Each one of them eagerly greeting me, as my face no doubt became redder and redder!  But eventually I managed to slip out of the toilet and head back up to my office before having to go face some of the same students.  Luckily, I don't recognize them yet.
But as if to make it up to me, the universe gave me a present, when I was leaving school at lunch time.  I was escorted down the street by some of my students who kept saying "Hello Patty", and then saying in Chinese "Oh you are so tall!"

On another note, PE in china is interesting.  They line up all the students and they do counted out exercises.  At Yizhong the students take up the soccer field, basketball courts, and two of the walkways.  The loud speaker barks out "Yi Er San Si Wu Liu Qi Ba, Er Er San Si Wu Liu Qi Ba, San Er San Si Wu Liu Qi Ba..."  All the students move in time, or as close to in time as they can get.  It is really quite amusing to picture American teens ever doing anything like this.  Just to put this in perspective here is a picture of the soccer field, behind that line of trees there are basketball courts that also have students lined up!  There are only 3 grades at the school, Gao 1, Gao 2 and Gao 3.  Gao 1 are sophomores in high school, Gao 2 are juniors and Gao 3 are seniors.

China I just Guanxi-ed you!

It has been a stressful week, everyone I told I was interested in going to Beijing, gave a sharp intake of breath and shook their head.  Tales of tickets being sold out even if you are the first to the window the day the go on sale... danced in my head.  The problem because worse the next day when I received a phone call from a friend who had to buy standing tickets!  13 hrs worth of standing... I cannot imagine.  I was afraid that would be me.  So I walked to find my liaison to ask for her help, she was gone, Teresa wasn't in yet.  So I turned to the English office.  I walked in and asked where I go to buy tickets.  When I explained where I was going I got the same sharp intake of breath and a shake of the head.

"The tickets are all sold"
"But they don't go on sale until tomo..."  I didn't even finish, they gave me a look.  I just smiled.  "Oh they don't go on sale officially"  They nodded.  Then Amanda asked me when I wanted to go, and how many tickets I needed.  And she called her friends and managed to find me 5 soft-sleeper tickets.  I wanted hard sleeper (because it is cheaper)  but I wasn't going to turn down any ticket that kept me from standing.  Tomorrow I pay her and get my tickets!  Now I need to do something very nice for her!  To thank her for helping me out!

Number Two Primary School!

Welcome American teach Patricia to our school!  Is what the full sign says.  I rolled out of bed at 6am and got myself all ready to go to the primary school for the first day today.  The opening ceremony where I was supposed to talk in front of the whole school was canceled due the the rain.  So I just spoke in front of the 6th graders I am going to teach.  They are all so cute!  Lucy, one of the English teachers came and picked me up from Yi Zhong and walked me there.  I love the school it is cute and it is one of the few elementary schools that does not have any dorms for students!  I gave a small speech, that consisted of my name, where I was from and that I was happy to be here.  Lucy didn't need to translate most of it.  Then the Head Mistress got up and spoke, she does not speak any English so this will be an interesting year.  I am the first foreign teacher this school has ever had, so no pressure or anything to be amazing!

Then I was given a tour and was allowed to take pictures of the classes that were going on.  The first graders in music class were so precious I could have sat there all day.  But Lucy was ready to get going.

The school is very interesting.  It is associated with the #1 Normal University of Hunan, where Maozedong went to school.  So on every floor there is a picture of Mao in various stages of his life with famous quotes. For example, "In being modest we move forward, with pride we do not progress"  (a bad translation on my part but you get the gist).  This school is also associated with Yi Zhong's rival school that apparently stole some students, so perhaps I am teaching at this primary school to help recruit for Yi Zhong?  Who knows!  Who cares.  The kids are cute.

So I went back home after my tour and finished up my plan for the day.  I left early and bought some oranges for the other teachers.  But forgot my poster with the rules so I wouldn't have write them.  Then my computer wouldn't hook up, so the power point I had stayed up late writing was useless.  But I managed to pull off an amusing lesson that I think all of the children understood.  Although one child has taken to hiding under his desk when I walk around so I won't call on him.  I feel terrible and have no idea what to do!  I will see if I can coax him out by speaking to him in Chinese.  Oh and here is the kicker, his name is Sam!

Of Swords and Dragons

Well this morning, which was really cool and pleasant (we are talking low 60s), I went to the wet market with Brittany!  Who pointed out many interesting veggies and told me how she cooks them.  Half the time there are no translation for the greens they eat in here in China.  We just don't even think about eating them!  But I decided to buy a Dragon Fruit!  Truly a delicious buy!  If you have never tried one and have the opportunity to buy one you should.  Without a doubt very interesting.  The wet market is a wondrous sight!  Veggies everywhere, half of them I don't even know what the hell they are.  Then you get to the meat section.  That is a bit horrifying.  Slabs of meat I can deal with, pigs feet I can deal with, dead plucked chickens with their heads still on and there feet still on, I can deal with.  Then you see the bags of live frogs, tanks of fish and cages of chickens and doves.  Huston we have a problem.

We saw a chicken being killed.  It was about that moment when I realized that Americans need to deal with it.  If we are going to eat meat we need to realize that meat comes from animals that are killed, sometimes in horrible ways.  But Brittany and I acknowledge that it was a bit horrifying but kept on walking.  I will be very desensitized to animals dying I think after this year.  But I bought some fresh veggies and feasted tonight on Jiaozi, corn and rice!  And what a feast it was.  No Oil!

I worked on some lesson plans and realized I left my markers in my office on the Yi-zhong campus, and I needed them.  So I went to Yi zhong, I came across the Frisbee crowd, still playing Frisbee!  This must have been 2 hours later, there were students dancing with swords.  It was amazing to see, so I ran back and got my camera!  I hope to see more of this, because it was frankly just totally bad ass.  Now it is very late and I must crash.  More adventures to come!

Fireworks and Lanterns!

Every Saturday on Orange Isle, they set off fireworks around 8:30.  Big, impressive, dwarf the Berkeley fireworks on 4th of july, fireworks!  For no particular reason, as far as I can tell.  A large group of WTers came into Changsha this weekend.  And we met up and ate Northern Food, which was a lot of effort and wasn't really worth it.  Totally my bad for how I ordered!  But it was good, just not quite as filling as we are used to, again, my bad for ordering smaller!  But then we heard the fireworks starting at about 8:15, by about 8:30 we paid and some of us left and caught the last 10 minutes of Fireworks from the West side of Changsha.  It was impressive and wonderful, the explosions of color over the lit city cannot be described.  We walked to the path by the river, there are two paths, an upper path that is paved and has a wall that people were sitting on, and a lower path that is dirt and you can walk all the way down to the river (湘河).

There were people packed in to watch the fireworks, as the fireworks ended people began streaming away, and it became feasible to walk again.  We discovered a path down to the river and found people were sending lanterns up into the air.  They were small kits, you unfold the plastic or paper lantern (wasn't sure which) then you light the fuel source underneath and let the lantern fill with hot air, you release it and watch it soar into the sky.  Once the lanterns caught the updraft from the river they would rise rapidly, soaring so high that they became tiny twinkles of light.  People were amused how many foreigners were taking pictures and watching this most basic of weekend activities.  It is treated like flying a kite, something you just do whenever.  But truly beautiful!

Then we boarded some buses and found our way to walking street and parking lot bar.  There were so many foreigners at parking lot bar.  Parking lot bar, is a parking lot that has a retaining wall, and a small stand that sells beer nearby.  When there is a small group of people it is easy to people watch and not get stared at.  When there is a large group of 外国人(waiguoren, foreigners) it is mainly a magnet for beggars.  Who were harassing us for money.  And we were very conspicuous as there must have been close to 30 of us hanging out, drinking beer and speaking in English.  We eventually moved into Folk Bar.  A bar that is tucked behind parking lot bar, and looks so much like an American bar.  A dive bar, but an American bar none the less.  It was smoky, and they were playing country music and other folksy songs.  They proudly displayed their Johnny Walker and other American liquors.  There was pool and Chinese people playing dice games.  A mellow enjoyable evening in the bar that culminated in Brittany, Loring, Thomas (hereafter referred to as P Squat) and I doing a late night Jiaozi run!  Delicious greasy Jiaozi are the perfect food after a trip to the bar!

2nd Week of Classes! Starting Primary School Soon!

Well I have just finished my 2nd week of classes.  The senior ones at my school are extremely intelligent.  I am starting to come up with plan for the semester.  Trying to tie it in with their books!  I am doing a fairly good job.  I am doing one lesson on Halloween, which is important!  The 1st week of classes, I had them pick an English name.  I gave them a few to choose from.  A shout out to my dad, I put Tom on the board.  I have 7 Toms in one class.  A shout out to my brother I put Sam, I have 2 Sams in the same class with 7 Toms.  No Colters yet!  The problem is, that none of them know each others English names.  So I am going to have to carve out a section of my lesson and go over all their English names.

My second lesson was on directions, I started out with a map.  Asking where countries were.  Some classes were amazing at geography even in their second language.  Only one class found Djibouti though!  I have some students who are amazing at English, other students who can't understand me when I say "don't sleep in my class."  So I am going to have to make sure my lessons are scaffolded.  But enough about teaching, more about Chinese culture.

Their buses are amazing, I don't like facing forwards though, I am afraid I will see the bus run over someone.  The traffic flows without any real rhyme or reason.  It is intense to ride the bus, but the buses run every 5-10minutes.  They are pretty efficient.  But they all end at different times.  I took two buses to get to the west side of Changsha, to meet Momo!  She took me to Yunan food!  They give you noodles, veggies, cilantro, meat, and egg.  Then they bring out boiling hot broth and mix everything together.  It is delicious, similar to the Vietnamese soup in the states.  But less flavorful.  Then we walked to "The Fifth Tone", a fantastic coffee shop.  I walked in and the coffee shop smelled like coffee, real coffee.  Not just milk, sugar and a hint of coffee.  Real coffee.

Then a walk down the riverside, beautiful!  The west side of Changsha is truly beautiful.  We went to the university, and we were walking through throes of students in military uniforms.  1st year juniors, 1st year seniors, 1st year university students go to military training.  We walked past a huge group of students standing and singing.  I ran into English corner, and was cornered for 20minutes.  All the students were excited to practice their English.  I will have to go back there.  Words cannot describe how much I love this town!

I got a gym membership today 799rmb for 10months.  I also got a free bag, a jump rope and a towel!  Sorry this post is all over the place.  I was listening to the thunder and rain!  Which has finally passed

Zhangjiajie 张家界

My first week of school was interrupted by two Chinese holidays: Teachers day and Midautumn Festival. There were no classes Friday afternoon, instead there was an assembly where some teachers and administrators spoke and were given sashes and certificates. Yi Zhong Xuexiao gave both Thomas and myself a gift of 300 yuan. It was very kind, and it cemented in my mind that I should go to Zhangjiajie this weekend. Emily had planted the idea, it sounded like tons of Wters were going to go. But then everyone bailed. So a plan was made, meet at the west bus station at 7.

The next morning my alarm went on and I left to go to the 146 bus stop to go to the west bus station, after an extremely long city bus ride where we nearly hit several scooter riders, I finally made it. The west bus station was crawling with people, there were food stands everywhere. I bought some baozi and waited for my four traveling companions. Maureen and Courtney arrived first, then Emily and Nora. Emily, Nora and I played phone tag for a while trying to find one another. Finally we made it in, and armed with a piece of paper that said Zhangjiajie, we walked to the ticket counter, and bought 5 tickets for Zhangjiajie!

Long distance buses in China are completely different than long distance buses in the USA. In China it is a valid form of travel and there are tons of people. Unlike greyhound which is like a sampling of some of the creepiest people in the US mixed with people too poor to take an airplane or drive. But in China it is expensive to use the freeway, on the way up once we left Changhsa and got on the freeway I think we mostly saw bigrigs and maybe 2 cars total.

Traveling to Zhangjiajie was interesting, it was all fields of rice, and other crops small villages and hills. Then all of a sudden you start climbing into the misty mountains and the scenery changes completely. Zhangjiajie is a town that is big enough that you can find a few western products, McDonalds and KFC. But it is so much smaller than Changsha. Less traffic, smaller town and when you get on the outside you run into wet markets with dogs hanging, and live animals. Not just chicken! Ducks, pheasants, moles, rabbits, geese. The wet markets are so lively. But the real reason everyone goes to Zhangjiajie is to see the UNESCO World Heritage Site Wulingyuan!

The first day it was closed by the time we made it there, so we walked around the town at the entrance which was even smaller and if you ever go do not use the public bathrooms. Walk into a hotel and use their bathroom. Always look like you belong and you will never be kicked out. We returned to Zhangjiajie and got food near Becky's school. It was delicious and spicy and made 3 out of 8 people's mouths go numb for a while. We still aren't exactly sure why.

The park, when we finally made it, started out a little disappointing. The sign said if you were under 24 you only needed to pay 160yuan, as opposed to 248yuan. But it meant if you had a student id, so I paid a bit more after some confusion where the ticket seller just gave me back my passport and money and said "sorry." But finally we made it, and we got on the right bus to go to the 10 mile scenic gallery.

The hike led us on a paved path next to a stream and a tram for total LPT (Lazy Person Travel) The final destination of this path was Tianzi Mountain. There was an elevator on one side that you could take up and then walk down but no LPT for us! There were tons of butterflies and a single lone Rhesus monkey who was chilling in the trees. Next time I go, I want to hike on a less crowded path so I can see more animals. But finally at the end of the tram we started to climb stairs, they started on about a 45 degree angle. So after a few flights we were all huffing a puffing. We split into three groups accidentally: Emily, Nora, Courtney and Sarah were in the lead, Maureen and I were in the middle, and Becky and Kiersten were bringing up the rear. We were harrassed by sedan carriers the entire way up. It was ridiculously unfair, I am huffing and puffing, they are relaxing and smoking and have the stamina to climb all these stairs carrying a person.

Normally I assume the view is spectacular but as it was, we could see some trees and then fog where the mountain dropped off, the higher we got the more it was like walking in the clouds and the wetter and cooler it got. Halfway we all met up again and were given corn jellies and sunflower seeds by some kind travelers who were hiking the stairs with small children and literally carrying the little guys up. So we started hiking again, this time on a steeper incline must have gone up to 70 degrees. But we made it up to the top and took some group photos and had some Chinese people take group pictures with us! Some of the wters used their bargaining skills to buy trinkets. We tried to find another path down, but to no avail. So back down the main path we went, we paused at one spot and shot the shit with some of the sedan carriers, including one who had arm wrestled with Kiersten!

We climbed all the way down, tried to find another hike to do before we left. Got on a bus and came across the Zhangjiajie International Music Festival. We listened to the singers from Georgia (the country) and then saw dancers from South Africa wearing Zulu warrior outfits. They were playing drums and dancing. It was the last thing I ever expected to see in China. But it was nice! Really nice! We took pictures of them afterwards and spoke to them. There were some Chinese people who wanted to take pictures with them. This one woman took a picture with one of the Zulu "warriors" decked out in animal skins, she looked really nervous.

We walked along the stream and Emily and Nora paid to put on some of the traditional outfits and we took tons and tons of pictures. We were starving and ready to leave, we headed to a pizza restaurant owned by Levi (we called him Cool Guy). He is a westerner who came to China a year ago and opened a pizza place about 8 months ago. He was friends with Kevin the wter at Becky's school last year. But right as we pulled up the power went out, so we went down for hot pot. That burned so much, tears rolling down my cheeks. But it was so good!

The ride back was less than stellar so i will gloss over it! But Zhangjiajie was amazing and I can't wait to go back. I want to see Tianmen Mountain!! and more of the park.