Terrific Tests and a Broken Bike

So Monday as I was riding home from doing taichi and dancing, one of my pedals felt a little wobbly. When I got home I gave the pedal a wiggle, only to have it come straight off the bike!! On closer inspection I found out that there was a bolt missing. In the moment I remembered hearing a tinkling of metal hitting the ground while I was riding but I thought I had just hit something. Oh dear. I don't think this was a pre-existing problem (aka, I don't think the guy I bought it from had noticed it was loose) and hopefully this will be easily fixed. I have to stay late today to make sure I finish up the monthly test in time, so I will hopefully be able to take Bikey over to one of those side shops tomorrow and get it fixed. I feel bad because with my lack of transportation I haven't been back to meet up with the dancers since Monday. I hope they don't think I abandoned them.

The tests so far have been going well. What I liked best about them is it means I get 10 minutes alone with each of my students. I get to find out a little more about them and see what they are like by themselves instead of just a part of the larger class. What seems to work best for class discipline so far is if I am a bit of a hardass when I am in front of the whole class, but super patient and friendly with individuals. I'm learning as I go. In a month I'll probably think differently.

One thing that I have been noticing bit by bit is student using things they have learned in my class. When we discussed the song "Innocence" by Avril Lavigne, I had to explain that innocent didn't just mean "not guilty", but that it also meant "child-like". Since then I have heard students using the term "innocent" in the way I explained to them. Also, after I taught them more interesting ways to say big, small, nice, boring, happy, sad, etc...I've been seeing the vocabulary pop up in their writing. It always puts a smile on my face. Makes me feel like maybe I'm doing something right.

I just finished putting together a guide of what different symbols mean in heraldry and family crests. I think I will use the Drew University crest (below) as an example when I teach my students about crests. This weekend I will be drawing my own and will be sure to take a picture for all of you.
I think I've decided to teach my students "What do you do with a drunken sailor?" and "Rattlin' Bog" when we do pub songs. Both are repetitive, upbeat, and silly. Also, with "Drunken Sailor" they can make up their own words to the song. I think I might want to do a third song if we have enough time...maybe "Wild Rover".

I'm making a power point about medieval life. So far I've covered food, education, the black plague, and clothes.

My mind kind of went blank and this entry is rather boring so I'm going to end it here...

Love,
Stephanie

Don't Make Me Go Medieval On Ya

So yesterday I was minding my own business and trying to plan out what to do in my classes for next week when I heard June and Zeno talking and mention my name. I perked up my head and they said that I was too far ahead of them and I needed to spend time on something else so that they could catch up. June says...how about Chaucer and other medieval stuff?

ARE YOU SERIOUS? So much win. I can't believe that they WANT me to teach my students about medieval things. Hopefully teaching something I am this passionate about will make my students more interested. I always enjoyed classes more when the teacher got excited about what they were teaching. They said I need to spend at least two weeks doing this stuff. I figured I would spend the first week on Medieval life to get them interested and to learn the background, and then spend the second week on the Canterbury Tales.

I am trying to figure out how to make this the most interesting. I have already started a powerpoint presentation about different medieval weapons and armor. I think I will teach them about the symbolism in heraldry and have them design their own coat of arms. They all want to learn songs in English, so I can teach them a few pub songs. I am trying to think of a good movie to show, but the best thing I can think of at the moment is "A Knight's Tale".

Any suggestions from my medievally friends?

Last week I was feeling a bit down on myself with this whole teaching thing, but being able to teach about Medieval things brings a whole new life to this.

Much love,
Stephanie

GUITAR!

So today I met up with Charlotte in Puxi. We had some Japanese food for lunch and then wandered around for a while. We would literally get to a street corner and then debate which way to go based on which way looked the most interesting. I got some rice paper so I can practice calligraphy. I also found a super cool yarn shop. It is on the corner of Fuzhou road and Yunnan road. I am writing that to remind myself when I forget later and want to go back.

After that we headed to the "music street". I thought we would be walking up and down that street and looking in every shop before I was satisfied and would pick a guitar. Nope! Second shop we went into I found it. I fell in love with this black beauty for only 580RMB ($85). I figured for a decent guitar I was going to have to spend around 500, so I felt ok with the price. I checked for the things I know to check for like string tension, but I'm no expert (like Davey Booney!). Seems like a good guitar to me for the price I paid. I also got some new strings for when the ones that are on it now die, and the store gave me a free soft carrying case to get it home.
Isn't he pretty? I think I have decided to call him "影龙" or "yinglong" which means Shadow Dragon. I thought it was fitting for a guitar as sexy and hardcore as he quite obviously is.

I figured I would throw some other pictures in for the hell of it. I made this bracelet yesterday for June to thank her for the teacup she got me. Her wrists seem tiny to me, so I made it tiny. I hope it fits ok.
It seems like there are fireworks every night here coming from SOME direction. Sometimes I ignore them, sometimes I watch. Tonight the view off of my balcony with the fireworks and the full moon was just too pretty not to take a picture.
I have noticed that since now I have a bike, walking anywhere seems tedious. Even walking to the bus stop today felt like: "WHAT? I have to walk WHERE? That'll take me almost 11 whole minutes!!"

I think tonight I will be playing my new guitar. Tomorrow I have to see if I can remember how to teach.

Love from me a Shadow Dragon,
Stephanie/Sproffee

Don't Drink The Milk!

For those of you who haven't heard, there has been some issues with Chinese milk recently. A powdered milk called Sanlu was causing kidney stones in children and there were four deaths.

If you want to read more about it, you can check it out HERE.

Keeping that in mind, THIS story is hilarious and depressing to me. A UK business secretary drank some Chinese milk on the news to show his support for Chinese products. Nine days later he was diagnosed with a kidney stone. I am fully aware this could be a ploy or a honest mistake and he already had the stone or some media work up, but if it IS true, it's just too ironic not to share.

In related news...I can't remember the last time I had milk. And now I want some.

TaiChi Lessons

So last night I did indeed return at 7:30. Luckily for me they did mean at night. When I first showed up I didn't see any familiar faces, so I wheeled over and had a seat. I had barely sat down when the guy who wanted me to meet his son came over. He asked if his son could come and speak English with me. I said sure. While we waited for him to show up, they invited me to dance some more. I danced with two new guys too. One of them led me in some complicated waltz-ish dance. I am proud I was able to keep up. I got complimented on my mad dancin' skillz.

The son showed up and looked to be 23, even though I knew he was 28. He seemed kind of embarrassed to be there. He and I talked very little, but he did ask for my AIM screen name, which I gave him. I threw in my e-mail address for good measure. Why not? He seemed nice and he was cute too. ;-)

There was a mother there who kept dragging her little girl over to me to speak English. The girl seemed genuinely frightened of me, but after a few tries she said hello, how are you, my name is Jenny, and then sang the Barney "I love you" song.

When I went on Thursday night there was a man who came over and told me I should learn Taichi. When I saw him there again last night I went over to ask when people did taichi. I figured if they were there dancing sometimes, maybe a group got together and did taichi. He immediately started teaching me right then and there. After a while he said he had to go home and we made plans to get together again this morning.

I woke up at 7am today (on a Saturday!) and after getting ready I biked over to the same spot. The man was dressed in a taichi outfit. Here is an example for people who don't know what I am talking about. Note: this is not a picture of the guy who was teaching me, but he does kind of look like him
We practiced for a bit where the people had been dancing, but then when a lot of people started showing up (to stare at the western learning taichi I guess), we moved to a more secluded place. We practiced for a little over an hour. He doesn't speak a word of English (well...other than the few words I taught him today. Hehe!) so he gave me all the explanations in Chinese. It's rather cool.

He asked if I had eaten and invited me back to his place to have breakfast. I didn't feel comfortable going to his house alone so I said I wasn't hungry but thanked him. I told him I would come back Monday night.

I hope this lasts. He hasn't mentioned anything about payment. He did ask me how much I make, but then again every Chinese teacher I've had has said Chinese people are really blunt when asking about salaries.

Learning taichi in China while practicing my Chinese? How cool is that?

Love,
Stephanie

Dancing In The Moonlight

After being ripped off in that teahouse scam, being constantly badgered with "HEY LADY, WANT WATCH?", and having every older couple that comes up to me start telling me how hungry they are and they just need 10 kuai to eat dinner, I was feeling a bit upset and suspicious of everyone new that tried to start a conversation with me. Luckily last night I had a rather positive experience. I hope it stays that way.

I took Bikey (which I am only calling that until I come up with a better name) over to Carrefour to get that gel seat. After that I decided to go riding around. I made a huge square around the school and then just started cycling down BiYun road (the main street that I live off of and Carrefour is on). I figured I would head down that street for about a half hour then turn back so I could meet Laibond at the appointed time. I had only started down that road for a while when I heard music and saw a bunch of couples doing ballroom dancing outside on this square in front of some shops. Having taken dance for nine years and a ballroom dance class my last semester in college, I was curious.

I pulled up and sat back on my bike and watched for a bit, trying to stay on the outskirts and blend in. One of the dancing couples noticed me and with big smiles they waved me over. No one there could speak a word of English so all of the conversation below was in Chinese. They asked if I could dance, I said a little, but that it wasn't the same. When a new song started, the guy beckoned me onto the dance floor and led me for some odd variant of swing dancing. I also danced with him for a rumba and a waltz. I am thankful for my class in ballroom dance teaching me the cues when following or else I would have made a fool of myself. In between dances he asked where I was from, what I was doing in China, how old I was...etc. After dancing and feeling very much the center of attention (a crowd had started to gather), I wheeled my bike over to a bench and started to write in my journal and watch the others dance.

The man I had danced with came over and asked to see my journal. He looked at the page I was writing and said he could understand any of it. I showed him the last page in it, where I had been writing down useful words and phrases in Chinese. When he saw that, he took the journal and wrote "I am a Chinese person" and his name. I took the journal and wrote "I am American" and my Chinese name. Then he wrote that America was great, I wrote that China was great. He wrote that America was very advanced, I wrote that China was beautiful. If me dancing drew a crowd, then my writing and reading Chinese made me VERY popular. There was a circle of people standing around me sitting on the bench. Everybody wanted to write something down to see if I could understand it. Finally, the guy said he wanted me to come back tomorrow (today) at 7:30 to talk to his son, who is 27 and can speak English. Since I didn't have any plans, I agreed to come back.

The part of me that has been taken advantage of in China one too many times is wondering if maybe he wants me to marry his son or something, but hopefully they just find me interesting and want to chat. I hope things work out with this group of people because I would love to have a spot that close where I can just bike out to on random nights when I feel like dancing or practicing Chinese with Shanghai people. One guy who talked to me briefly gave me the impression that sometimes they do taichi there too, but maybe I misunderstood.

Oh dear. Something just occurred to me. Using military time is pretty standard here. I REALLY hope that they meant they wanted me to come back at 7:30 at night and NOT 7:30 in the morning. I will feel like a jackass if I find out they were waiting for me this morning. Oh dear.

After all that dancing business, I met up with Laibond for dinner. We ended up going to Blue Frog. We chatted about Drew and Drew people, what we were doing, etc. We also had a few tangents in the conversation that reminded me of talking to my father, where one of us would say some non sequitur and the other would take it and run with it. One involved a Scandinavian pirate named One-Eyed Pete whose ship was a unicorn that sailed the 8th sea. Hanging out with him made me laugh a lot. We stopped at Carrefour after dinner since he was looking for something and I need more dinner-y items. After that we parted ways and I rode my bike back home for bed.

I need to firm up my lesson plan for next week before work gets out. So far I think it will be skits for class one, testing in class two, fill in the blank comics in class three and for the whole class I can't decide if I want to do the "linking words and phrases" lesson or stick with Wall-E. Classes C and D still haven't seen the end so I could do some fun exercises relating to Wall-E with I have Class A and B, and take my period with class C and D to finish. I dunno. Bah.

Anyway, that last paragraph was convoluted and confusing which is my sign to wrap this up.

Love!
Stephanie

Video: China Apartment

Please excuse my voice, I am very stuffed up.