So I am apparently making up for not posting since Sunday by posting three times today. Whoo!
This morning we started with the medieval plays. Some good things, some bad. I was a little disappointed that they hadn't put more effort into the plays since it was their only work this whole week. I told them as such. I was also sure to point out the things that I liked too. I know people have a tendency to remember the bad comments and forget the good, so I'm trying to be careful with what I say.
I recorded all the plays on my camera but they haven't all been copying off onto my computer. I don't know which end the problem is on.
I handed out the sign up sheets for what activities the students want to do for next week. So far I have a TON of people for clothing and food and NO ONE for building a trebuchet. Yeesh! I thought teenage boys would be more excited about the idea of destroying things. If I don't get any students signing up for that, I will have to scrap the whole idea and focus on the other stuff. Oh well. I would be a little disappointed about not helping build a trebuchet, but it would certainly make things a little easier for next week.
After we finished with the plays and me explaining what they need to do this weekend to prepare for next week, I told the students they could go back to the high school building (we were in the theater) if they wanted, class was over a few minutes early. Most opted to stay and hang out and asked me to play a game! :-)
It was a strange version of rock, paper scissors. If you lost you had to put your hand down on the table. As more and more people lost, you stacked your hands up. The last person with one free hand got to slap the pile of hands. Everyone tries to pull their hands away to not get slapped. We played a few rounds. I got one good slap directly on the back of my left hand from one of my students (who was very apologetic) but otherwise escaped the game unscathed. I'm taking it as a good sign that they wanted me to join their game, instead of a covert attempt to beat me up. :-D
Tonight their is a halloween party at the main school building. I think I will go to check it out. I brought my halloween costume to work just in case.
Friday night I am going out with Lucy and her friends and Charlotte to a club for Halloween. Charlotte said I could spend the night in her apartment so I don't have to go all the way back to Pudong late at night after drinking. I also got the e-mail today and the Shanghai Halloween pub crawl is getting a third bus so I am off the waiting list and can go! I asked Iris (the girl I met like....4 weeks ago?) if she wanted to go with me. Hopefully she's still free. There will also be people there that I met at the wine tasting. I hope I have fun!
It's still raining. Bah.
Much love,
Stephanie
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Heraldry Galore
Some pictures of the heraldry my students did:
This is the board right outside of my office. I love seeing people standing in front of it and looking at all the pictures. (If you click on the picture you can see a larger version).
I couldn't fit all of grade ten on one board, so this is Class C. I also put on the pages from the packet I gave them explaining what each symbol means.
This is from one of my favorite students. He likes to say "Holy Crap" so he made it his motto.
This was the best coat of arms from my class, IMHO. Very good drawing and a lot of though went into the symbols. He explained them all in class, but it was a bit personal, so I'm not going to write it here.
This is the board right outside of my office. I love seeing people standing in front of it and looking at all the pictures. (If you click on the picture you can see a larger version).
I couldn't fit all of grade ten on one board, so this is Class C. I also put on the pages from the packet I gave them explaining what each symbol means.
This is from one of my favorite students. He likes to say "Holy Crap" so he made it his motto.
This was the best coat of arms from my class, IMHO. Very good drawing and a lot of though went into the symbols. He explained them all in class, but it was a bit personal, so I'm not going to write it here.
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Wordy Update
Things have been going mostly well. This week in class the students first had to show their shield and explain it to the class. Then I put them into groups and gave each group a story to learn and turn into a play by the end of the week. Sadly, I decided against Chaucer since some of my students are just no where near that level of English yet. I found a book in the school library that had European folklore in shorter and easier versions. The three stories they are doing are Beowulf, the Sword in the Stone, and How Finn Found Bran. To make sure they understand that these aren't the original, I also printed out excerpts from the original text of each so they could see how much it has changed.
I gave a quiz yesterday about everything we learned last week. Since their first monthly test was oral, this was the first "test-ish" thing we had done in class. I felt so teachery. Some students did very well, others poorly. Out of a possible 20 points, the lowest score was 9. One thing that amused me was the answers to the question "Why did knights use heraldry?" When I got multiple students during the test who confessed they forgot what heraldry meant, I told them it was the same as the coat of arms, what they drew over the weekend. I got a surprising amount of students that wrote that a coat of arms was what knights used to "protect their arms". Grading tests was funny. I also had a student that mixed up "herald" and "halberd" so he said the definition of a herald was a long pole with a blade like an ax. Ahh... medieval humor.
I asked the school for funds for projects for next week. Stuff like cloth for clothes, ingredients to make food, and wood... for my pipe dream hope to make a trebuchet. I haven't really gotten a clear answer as to if I'm getting anything and if so, how much. I hope I'll get enough to do something fun. I think doing something with your own two hands is one of the best and most interesting ways to learn. I still remember how confused I was about DNA until we built models in class. It all clicked. Then again, I am a tactile learner.
Class C never ceases to amaze me. Today when I passed out the stories and pointed out the fact that this was their classwork and homework for the rest of the week (aka, more done in class means less homework) they all immediately started working. The room was silent. Ahh bliss. I'm glad that every day I teach Class C, they are my last class. I end the day on a positive note.
So my bike broke again last week. The pole leading to the seat bent. It was my own dumb fault. I tried to bend it back with a hammer, which resulted in a twisted piece of metal that could be taken for abstract art. I bought a new pole and seat at Decathalon (kinda like Dick's Sporting Goods) and put them on last night. I was so excited to have it fixed and I was going to go a'riding around today. And know what? It's raining. BAH.
I hung up the shields my students drew and they have been getting a lot of attention. It makes me smile every time I see people standing in front of the board and looking at them.
I also am going to ask my students if they want to have a student design a coat of arms for the whole 10th grade and then put them on a t-shirt. The senior students started screen printing t-shirts as a business idea. Such a lucky twist of fate should not be ignored. I am going to ask the students starting tomorrow if they would want to buy t-shirts so I can get back to the seniors about whether or not they are getting in a huge order.
This post talks A LOT about school stuff cuz I've been busy with it a lot lately. It's been on my mind a lot.
Loooove,
ME
I gave a quiz yesterday about everything we learned last week. Since their first monthly test was oral, this was the first "test-ish" thing we had done in class. I felt so teachery. Some students did very well, others poorly. Out of a possible 20 points, the lowest score was 9. One thing that amused me was the answers to the question "Why did knights use heraldry?" When I got multiple students during the test who confessed they forgot what heraldry meant, I told them it was the same as the coat of arms, what they drew over the weekend. I got a surprising amount of students that wrote that a coat of arms was what knights used to "protect their arms". Grading tests was funny. I also had a student that mixed up "herald" and "halberd" so he said the definition of a herald was a long pole with a blade like an ax. Ahh... medieval humor.
I asked the school for funds for projects for next week. Stuff like cloth for clothes, ingredients to make food, and wood... for my pipe dream hope to make a trebuchet. I haven't really gotten a clear answer as to if I'm getting anything and if so, how much. I hope I'll get enough to do something fun. I think doing something with your own two hands is one of the best and most interesting ways to learn. I still remember how confused I was about DNA until we built models in class. It all clicked. Then again, I am a tactile learner.
Class C never ceases to amaze me. Today when I passed out the stories and pointed out the fact that this was their classwork and homework for the rest of the week (aka, more done in class means less homework) they all immediately started working. The room was silent. Ahh bliss. I'm glad that every day I teach Class C, they are my last class. I end the day on a positive note.
So my bike broke again last week. The pole leading to the seat bent. It was my own dumb fault. I tried to bend it back with a hammer, which resulted in a twisted piece of metal that could be taken for abstract art. I bought a new pole and seat at Decathalon (kinda like Dick's Sporting Goods) and put them on last night. I was so excited to have it fixed and I was going to go a'riding around today. And know what? It's raining. BAH.
I hung up the shields my students drew and they have been getting a lot of attention. It makes me smile every time I see people standing in front of the board and looking at them.
I also am going to ask my students if they want to have a student design a coat of arms for the whole 10th grade and then put them on a t-shirt. The senior students started screen printing t-shirts as a business idea. Such a lucky twist of fate should not be ignored. I am going to ask the students starting tomorrow if they would want to buy t-shirts so I can get back to the seniors about whether or not they are getting in a huge order.
This post talks A LOT about school stuff cuz I've been busy with it a lot lately. It's been on my mind a lot.
Loooove,
ME
Sunday, 26 October 2008
Getting Lost Makes My Feet Hurt
Yesterday I was a big big bum. I practiced guitar, sewed, did some laundry...that was about it. It was a rainy day and I didn't feel like doing anything.
This morning I did some quick grocery shopping. I splurged on a few things I have been wanting. I bought a box of stuffing since Dave posted about stuffing and it made me want some. I also treated myself to a fancy gouda cheese (but only a small block of it).
Today I wanted to go to Puxi to the craft market I had gone to with June to get some stuff to make a Halloween costume. I think I've decided to go with being a jester. Today I bought some ribbon that matches the jester hat I bought and some jingle bells. If I can just find some plain t-shirts in different colors, I can cut them up and sew them back together to look like a jester shirt. I haven't been able to find plain t-shirts ANYWHERE. I have less than a week to find them.
Anyway, I met up with Charlotte outside of the subway. I went out of the wrong exit and wandered around for ten minutes before I realized I was in the wrong place and had to go back. Once we met up, we went to lunch at Subway. I got a roasted chicken sandwich with bacon and honey mustard. Twas good! Then we proceeded to try and find the craft market for the next three hours.
I kid you not. We took a taxi to the place I knew it was near and walked around and around down one street and up the next and got very lost and then looked at a map and then wandered around some more. We stopped at a bunch of other shops, bought some little things. Charlotte tried on a wig, which was hilarious. We laughed at a little dog wearing sneakers. We got some bubble tea. Finally we found the craft market. I bought the ribbon and bells and also some more yarn. The bag of yarn and needles below cost 17 kuai altogether. Sweet deals!
After that we took a cab back to her apartment and I finally go to see where she lived. Then I took the subway back. I ended up taking line 8 to line 4 just cuz I wanted to skip having to deal with People's Square (I usually take line 2). People's Square is such a bother. There is ninety million people there all the time, you have to walk three miles to get to the next subway line, and you get shoved around like cattle. I'd rather spend more time waiting for my stop than deal with that.
I picked up something at a 2kuai store (kinda like a dollar store!) that I need to share with you. Here it is:
-Stephanie
This morning I did some quick grocery shopping. I splurged on a few things I have been wanting. I bought a box of stuffing since Dave posted about stuffing and it made me want some. I also treated myself to a fancy gouda cheese (but only a small block of it).
Today I wanted to go to Puxi to the craft market I had gone to with June to get some stuff to make a Halloween costume. I think I've decided to go with being a jester. Today I bought some ribbon that matches the jester hat I bought and some jingle bells. If I can just find some plain t-shirts in different colors, I can cut them up and sew them back together to look like a jester shirt. I haven't been able to find plain t-shirts ANYWHERE. I have less than a week to find them.
Anyway, I met up with Charlotte outside of the subway. I went out of the wrong exit and wandered around for ten minutes before I realized I was in the wrong place and had to go back. Once we met up, we went to lunch at Subway. I got a roasted chicken sandwich with bacon and honey mustard. Twas good! Then we proceeded to try and find the craft market for the next three hours.
I kid you not. We took a taxi to the place I knew it was near and walked around and around down one street and up the next and got very lost and then looked at a map and then wandered around some more. We stopped at a bunch of other shops, bought some little things. Charlotte tried on a wig, which was hilarious. We laughed at a little dog wearing sneakers. We got some bubble tea. Finally we found the craft market. I bought the ribbon and bells and also some more yarn. The bag of yarn and needles below cost 17 kuai altogether. Sweet deals!
After that we took a cab back to her apartment and I finally go to see where she lived. Then I took the subway back. I ended up taking line 8 to line 4 just cuz I wanted to skip having to deal with People's Square (I usually take line 2). People's Square is such a bother. There is ninety million people there all the time, you have to walk three miles to get to the next subway line, and you get shoved around like cattle. I'd rather spend more time waiting for my stop than deal with that.I picked up something at a 2kuai store (kinda like a dollar store!) that I need to share with you. Here it is:
If you can't read it, it says "In order to make your little nose more clearer, more beautiful and full of happiness, this product is necessary for your nose!" It also says "Anti-Germ and Stink-Proof" in the corner. The back is just as much fun:
I'm not sure what I'm going to do this week for classes. I hate feeling unprepared but I always seem to end up doing things last minute. My feet and legs are killing me.
-Stephanie
Friday, 24 October 2008
Wine Tasting
The wine tasting last night was super fun and DELICIOUS.
After work I went with a bunch of the high school teachers out for sushi again. I feel a bit bad whenever I hang out with them because try as I might to follow the conversation, one of them usually has to translate a lot for me. I feel like a social burden. Bah. After dinner, the principle drove me to the subway so I wouldn't have to wait for the bus.
I found the restaurant without much trouble and then stood around for a few minutes before the woman organizing the event saw me looking lost and confused by the door. The setting was really cool. A high, rectangular bar table off in a private room. The opened up a bottle of wine for those who were there early, so we sipped on white wine and chatted. Everyone I met was really nice. The standard greeting to another expat seems to be: "So how long have you been here?" There were severe differences in how long people had been in Shanghai. Hannah, the person organizing the event, has been in China for 7 years. Heather (I think that was her name?) actually arrived two days after me.
I was a bit worried about how serious this was going to be since at each setting there was a sheet of paper with things like "Nose, Body, Color, etc" and room for you to write down your comments. Considering the only wine tasting I've really done before was the "Hey! This is how you do a wine tasting!" in my senior year of college, I was afraid of looking like a total wine n00b. In actuality, most of the people around me had never been to a wine tasting either. Alicia, the woman sitting to my right, actually started up a list of wine "buzz words" on the back of her sheet of paper and checked them off if people said them. Those sitting around her made suggestions. My contributions to the list were delicate, subtle, delightful and tangy. We had fun mixing and matching them to come up with the snobbiest comment. Ex: It starts with a warm, spicy oak flavor, with delicate tangy fruit undertones.
The wine itself was very good. After the initial white wine, the rest were all reds. I usually prefer white, but I liked everything I tried. And the food was AMAZING. I only took a picture of the first red wine and the first dish of food. I didn't want to be weird taking pictures all night. The only thing I remember about the first wine is that it was a merlot. The food paired with it was all fish. Yum.
Look at the fancy schmany servings with that delicate dollop of sauce and the tiny lemon wedge. It was all so tasty. The second dish of food included a stuffed cherry tomato, a tiny slice of quiche, and some spicy beef on a teeny skewer (I'm not complaining about the proportions, I just thought everything was so cute). The third dish and fourth dish was marinated artichoke heart, olives, three different cheeses with a sprinkling of walnuts, curried pear jam, bread and butter, and a collection of sliced meats that included prochuttio (is that spelled right?), turkey, italian sausage and something else that I'm forgetting. Everything tasted SO GOOD. I had never had cheese with walnuts before and it was probably my favorite thing I ate that evening. If you have never mixed walnuts and cheese, you should go do that right now. The wines were all good. I remember liking the third one best, but since I didn't write down any comments about it, I don't remember why!
I took the subway back to PuDong and then took a cab since it was 11:30. It was a late night and I am pretty tired right now, but it was definitely worth it. I'll probably take a nap this afternoon for a recharge.
I told the people sitting next to me (whose company I enjoyed immensely) to look me up on facebook. Hopefully I will be seeing them again.
I need to get to class now!
Love!
After work I went with a bunch of the high school teachers out for sushi again. I feel a bit bad whenever I hang out with them because try as I might to follow the conversation, one of them usually has to translate a lot for me. I feel like a social burden. Bah. After dinner, the principle drove me to the subway so I wouldn't have to wait for the bus.
I found the restaurant without much trouble and then stood around for a few minutes before the woman organizing the event saw me looking lost and confused by the door. The setting was really cool. A high, rectangular bar table off in a private room. The opened up a bottle of wine for those who were there early, so we sipped on white wine and chatted. Everyone I met was really nice. The standard greeting to another expat seems to be: "So how long have you been here?" There were severe differences in how long people had been in Shanghai. Hannah, the person organizing the event, has been in China for 7 years. Heather (I think that was her name?) actually arrived two days after me.
I was a bit worried about how serious this was going to be since at each setting there was a sheet of paper with things like "Nose, Body, Color, etc" and room for you to write down your comments. Considering the only wine tasting I've really done before was the "Hey! This is how you do a wine tasting!" in my senior year of college, I was afraid of looking like a total wine n00b. In actuality, most of the people around me had never been to a wine tasting either. Alicia, the woman sitting to my right, actually started up a list of wine "buzz words" on the back of her sheet of paper and checked them off if people said them. Those sitting around her made suggestions. My contributions to the list were delicate, subtle, delightful and tangy. We had fun mixing and matching them to come up with the snobbiest comment. Ex: It starts with a warm, spicy oak flavor, with delicate tangy fruit undertones.
The wine itself was very good. After the initial white wine, the rest were all reds. I usually prefer white, but I liked everything I tried. And the food was AMAZING. I only took a picture of the first red wine and the first dish of food. I didn't want to be weird taking pictures all night. The only thing I remember about the first wine is that it was a merlot. The food paired with it was all fish. Yum.
Look at the fancy schmany servings with that delicate dollop of sauce and the tiny lemon wedge. It was all so tasty. The second dish of food included a stuffed cherry tomato, a tiny slice of quiche, and some spicy beef on a teeny skewer (I'm not complaining about the proportions, I just thought everything was so cute). The third dish and fourth dish was marinated artichoke heart, olives, three different cheeses with a sprinkling of walnuts, curried pear jam, bread and butter, and a collection of sliced meats that included prochuttio (is that spelled right?), turkey, italian sausage and something else that I'm forgetting. Everything tasted SO GOOD. I had never had cheese with walnuts before and it was probably my favorite thing I ate that evening. If you have never mixed walnuts and cheese, you should go do that right now. The wines were all good. I remember liking the third one best, but since I didn't write down any comments about it, I don't remember why!I took the subway back to PuDong and then took a cab since it was 11:30. It was a late night and I am pretty tired right now, but it was definitely worth it. I'll probably take a nap this afternoon for a recharge.
I told the people sitting next to me (whose company I enjoyed immensely) to look me up on facebook. Hopefully I will be seeing them again.
I need to get to class now!
Love!
Thursday, 23 October 2008
Murphy's Law is a Bitch
So yesterday Charlotte decided to join me on a trip out to see my taichi teacher. We had dinner at Zentral, since she was craving some western food. I had a yummy tuna melt. Then we walked to the courtyard with the dancers.
On Monday when I saw him, he kept saying something about 6:30, so I assumed he meant he wanted me to arrive at that time, so we arrived at 6:30. No one was there... We sat for a bit then walked completely around the block. When we got back it was a little before 7:30, which is the time I had arrived every time before. The dancers were there and setting up. I talked for a bit with the first guy I danced with that first night, and danced one waltz with him. I tried calling the taichi man on the number that he called me on, but after talking to two women who answered the phone, they just hung up on me. Of course the first and only time I try to bring someone with me, he doesn't show up.
I'd go again tonight, but I am going to a wine tasting event I found on an expat website. I'm hoping to meet some new people. It's a small wine tasting, only 16 people (I had to reserve a seat). Wish me luck, and yummy wine! Unfortunately it goes until 10pm and it's in Puxi so it will be a late night for me, but I really do need to get out of my apartment more.
Yesterday I had a class with all of Class One (A and B), the 15 visiting Arizona students and the foreign teachers. About 50 people total. A daunting task. Plus we were doing pubsinging so I had to SING in front of all these people. The class overall went ok, but my students were being a bit more unruly than usual, so it didn't make me look that good in front of the guests. Plus the class started with a bang and then kind of fizzled out. I should have switched the order of the songs and put Rattlin Bog at the end. The students had a lot of fun and laughs doing that, and then got bored with the other two I picked. *sigh* I suppose I expect too much. My students can't have a great time in my class 100% of the time.
Today for lunch the fruit was a pomelo...a kind of grapefruit. The flesh of the fruit looked like the inside of a tauntaun from Star Wars. Tasted kind of sour, but overall good. It's similar to a grapefruit apparently. Oh! I also found out that I've been eating pig's feet for weeks without knowing about it.
In completely unrelated news, I am practicing "Of Angels and Angles" by the Decemberists on the guitar. If you have not heard this song, you should go listen to it right now because it's lovely.
The midterms got pushed back a week so now I have to reorganize what we're doing in class.
Yesterday marks two months here.
Much love,
Stephanie
On Monday when I saw him, he kept saying something about 6:30, so I assumed he meant he wanted me to arrive at that time, so we arrived at 6:30. No one was there... We sat for a bit then walked completely around the block. When we got back it was a little before 7:30, which is the time I had arrived every time before. The dancers were there and setting up. I talked for a bit with the first guy I danced with that first night, and danced one waltz with him. I tried calling the taichi man on the number that he called me on, but after talking to two women who answered the phone, they just hung up on me. Of course the first and only time I try to bring someone with me, he doesn't show up.
I'd go again tonight, but I am going to a wine tasting event I found on an expat website. I'm hoping to meet some new people. It's a small wine tasting, only 16 people (I had to reserve a seat). Wish me luck, and yummy wine! Unfortunately it goes until 10pm and it's in Puxi so it will be a late night for me, but I really do need to get out of my apartment more.
Yesterday I had a class with all of Class One (A and B), the 15 visiting Arizona students and the foreign teachers. About 50 people total. A daunting task. Plus we were doing pubsinging so I had to SING in front of all these people. The class overall went ok, but my students were being a bit more unruly than usual, so it didn't make me look that good in front of the guests. Plus the class started with a bang and then kind of fizzled out. I should have switched the order of the songs and put Rattlin Bog at the end. The students had a lot of fun and laughs doing that, and then got bored with the other two I picked. *sigh* I suppose I expect too much. My students can't have a great time in my class 100% of the time.
Today for lunch the fruit was a pomelo...a kind of grapefruit. The flesh of the fruit looked like the inside of a tauntaun from Star Wars. Tasted kind of sour, but overall good. It's similar to a grapefruit apparently. Oh! I also found out that I've been eating pig's feet for weeks without knowing about it.
In completely unrelated news, I am practicing "Of Angels and Angles" by the Decemberists on the guitar. If you have not heard this song, you should go listen to it right now because it's lovely.
The midterms got pushed back a week so now I have to reorganize what we're doing in class.
Yesterday marks two months here.
Much love,
Stephanie
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Why Stephanie Should Not Be Allowed To Have Face Paint
Umm...yeah. Bad things happen when I get bored.
My reference:
My reference:
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