Clever girl...

In class we are discussing descriptive writing. I showed my students a picture of my parents cabin and had them describe it. After getting them to say all the usual things (height, color, shape, etc), I tried to get them to think beyond the norm and describe the picture using feelings, similes and imagination. I prompted them with questions like "If you were at this house, what do you think you would hear?"

This happened in class D.

Me: If you were standing here and looking forward, what do you think you would see?

Angela (student): *looks at the picture, then looks at me* A camera.


I nearly tripped I was laughing so hard.

Being Productive

The past few days have been pretty productive.

This picture is from Monday night. It was June's birthday so we went out and had Indian food for dinner. On the left is XuPing (or Shopping), Lotus with her adorable hyperactive son Jason, Me, birthday girl June, Ula and Ned (who looks worried for some reason...)

Yesterday I finally gave up trying to fix my internet for myself (or waiting for divine intervention) and reported that it wasn't working to the school. Good thing. Turns out the problem wasn't my computer or my modem but something with the cable lines. They reset them and now I have internet in my apartment again!

Since I was already talking to the school about repairs I finally decided the light in my bathroom was calling it quits. (It was taking about about 2 minutes to turn on...if ever. Showering in the dark is rather weird). The repair man replaced it and now I can see my teeth when I brush! Whoo!

Lastly and most importantly, I finally got off my lazy butt and went to sign up for Chinese lessons. I had used about ever excuse ever. It's raining, I have dinner plans, I'm tired, there is a school meeting, I have a wine tasting, I gotta do lesson plans....etc. Stephanie and Becky told me where it was and I had a little interview with one of the organizers. She quizzed me in Chinese to see what my level was (Sample question: How do Chinese people celebrate the mid-autumn festival?) I asked if there was a class I could join but it turns out there is really only one other person at the school at my level and he won't be back for more lessons until after Chinese new year. Since I want to brush up my skills before mi madre comes to visit, I signed up for private lessons for the next month. It was pretty pricey, but Becky says it's a good school, it's convenient (literally just down the street) and part of my thinking is that I'll want to work extra hard so it will be worth the price. Wish me luck

I forget if I mentioned in my blog already or not, but Kelly and I are going to Sanya for Christmas break. We already got our plane tickets and are going to reserve our hostel tonight. Sanya is on Hainan island and is supposed to be the Hawaii of China. I am looking forward to a little warmth!

The only thing stopping me from being super productive lately is www.notalwaysright.com. It's addicting and I need to stop reading it.

That's all for now.

Much love,
Stephanie

Grr...Argh.

I have been very busy at work and the internet hasn't worked in my apartment for about a week...that makes it incredible hard to post.

So let me give you all a quick update on the last week or so.

-My bike got stolen. I am thoroughly crushed. Friday night I had dinner with Lotus and then went shopping. By the time I went outside it was gone. I had it locked and right by the entrance like I always do. This means someone either cut through my lock or picked it up and walked away. Either way, no one stopped them and I am SOL with no bike. RIP The Lime.

-I lost my favorite hat. In a continuing streak of bad luck, I left my favorite hat (my grey irish cap/newspaper hat) in a cab on Saturday night. I loved that hat and it had a lot of good memories.

-Not all in the world is sad. Friday night I got a comforter after being freezing cold all last winter. It is super warm and comfy and was pretty cheap.

-Saturday was a surprise party for Chris, that Becky organized in an Irish pub. It was a lot of fun.  I got myself, the other Stephanie, Ned and Michelle to all chip in to get him an acoustic guitar (I've been giving him lessons). On Saturday Michelle and I went to jingling lu and got the guitar, an electric tuner, a new set of strings, a bunch of picks, a soft case and a capo all for the price we wanted. Chris seemed to really like it.

-I went to an Improv lab last week and they really liked me. I might be asked to join the performing group and the woman running the lab asked me if I would be interesting in running a lab myself in the future. I wish I could find something medieval here to do in Shanghai, but it was really nice to find my second favorite activity from college: improv!

-I have been baking like crazy. My new routine is to wash my dishes Sunday night while baking something, and then bringing whatever it is in for my coworkers on Monday. I've made three kinds of cookies, blueberry muffins and chocolate cupcakes so far. Yum!

-Last night I played Christmas music and decorated my apartment. My tree looks very jolly.

I suppose that's about it for now.

Much love,
Stephanie

My Worst Nightmare

Ok. Maybe "worst nightmare" is a bit overly dramatic, but something has happened that I have been worried about for years now.

I think it is pretty common knowledge that bikes are EVERYWHERE in China. Pedal bikes, electric bikes, bikes with carts...they are all over the place. Outside of big stores and shopping areas there are usually rows and rows of bikes in the parking lots. The Carrefour where I go shopping is no different.

(note: this is not a picture of the Carrefour parking lot, it's just to give you an idea of what I mean.)

The bikes often are not attached to bike racks but rather have wheel locks. They are also often crowded together cheek by jowl (or pedal to pedal I suppose). I don't know if it's just me, but for years this bike organization has always looked forebodingly similar to this:

This Saturday I left Carrefour with my purse and two bags filled with groceries in hand and tried to squeeze my bike out from between two others.

And it happened.

Luckily, I only knocked over 5 bikes. The 6th in line shuddered dangerously but held it's ground. Unluckily, one of the bikes was a motor bike with an alarm the immediately started blaring it's protest. Further unluckily, I was right by the entrance so I had a crowd. I quickly righted all of the bikes, jammed my groceries in my basket and pedaled out of there as fast as I could.

It could have been worse. Not even ten minutes later as I was turning the corner on my street, I passed a man looking dejectedly at no less than 9 domino-ed bikes. I think it was the universe's way of telling me not to worry about it too much.

Much love,
Stephanie

Marbled Pumpkin Cheesecake

So last night I went to dinner at Lucy's apartment. Since I have been using my toaster oven EVERYDAY I of course knew I had to bake something. While hanging out at Bed last weekend, Audrey excitedly asked me if I knew how to make pumpkin cheesecake. Since I knew Audrey was going to be at dinner too and I have an uncontrollable need to please people (and cuz it sounded yummy) I decided to make pumpkin cheesecake.

I found THIS recipe online, which sounded easy enough. The only problem is that I couldn't find canned pumpkin at either Carrefour or the imported food store. So I bought a small pumpkin and figured "Hey! How hard could it be to make pumpkin puree?"

It actually wasn't too bad, just time consuming. First I cut it in half and scooped out the yucks. (I went through the extra effort to pick out the seeds to make toasted pumpkin seeds but I got distracted by a friend and they ended up burning. :-( )
Next I brushed a little butter on the flesh, covered each half with foil and put them in my oven for about an hour.
After that I scooped out the now tender pumpkin meat. A little time in a blender (that I borrowed from Chris and Becky) and I was looking at fresh pumpkin puree!
After that I just followed the recipe (although I used a pre-made graham cracker crust since I already had one). And I ended up with a pretty tasty fall themed cheesecake.
Lucy and Audrey (and Audrey's boyfriend and Lucy's roommate) LOVED it. I think it tasted extra good with a cup of coffee.

-Stephanie

P.S. When did my China blog turn into a cooking and crafting diary?

My Poetic Students

I often share when my students make funny mistakes in English, or do things that make me laugh. Recently, however, we have been talking about rhetorical devices (like metaphors and similes) as well as descriptive writing. Some of my students have written things that I really like. I thought I would share a few.

"Drowsiness is such a quiet killer that murders our time"
(I really liked this one, probably because I've been sleepy lately and it makes it so hard for me to concentrate.)Life

"Life is the early bus,
We always keep missing.
Life is the traffic jam,
We never stop waiting."

"The little ship, even now seemed to be as fragile as a piece of glass, steadily floating on the tranquil horizon."

"His hair is twisted and as complicated as IB math higher level."

"I used to hide myself from everybody
Like a shadow cast on the ground
Always behind somebody."

"It's the day of autumn
Leaves are so tired that they fall to sleep on the ground."

"Looking at the lake under the sun shine,
You will find that,
It is glittering,
As if it was made of thousands of diamonds."

That's all for now. I think I might actually get all my correcting done today just in time to correct my big stack o' midterms I'll be getting tomorrow. Whoo...

-Stephanie

Mock Admissions

This picture amuses me. During last Friday's meeting we did a mini mock admissions. It is supposed to be a good example to show us teachers the kinds of things that colleges are looking for, and to read some sample recommendation letters since a lot of them are writing them now.

Each teacher had to read one of the three fake applications for a college. Personal essay, transcript, recommendations...everything. Then we discussed them as a group and voted to admit one, wait list another and reject the third. I am proud of my group since we wanted our guy to get in (he wrote a really good personal essay) and he was the one the whole meeting voted to admit.

In this picture you can see the notes we collected for each of the three candidates on the board, listed by their last name (Gates, Leavitt and Wilson). I was in the group that read Gate's application so when the time came to write notes on the board, I volunteered like the goody-two-shoes I am. When I noticed someone in the back was taking pictures, I made a goofy face at them and then went back to what I was doing.

June sent this picture to me yesterday. Of course the camera woman happened to catch my silly face moment. BAH!

-Stephanie