Tianmu Lake

The faculty in our department went on a two-day trip to Jiangsu province. The first day we toured Tianmu Lake and the second day we went to the ancient city of Qiandeng. Blog entry about the second day soon to follow. We took a charter bus for 3 1/2 hours. Thankfully I was able to successfully sleep the whole time so I woke up and we were there. The best part of the trip is that it was free! We got a really nice hotel room and all our meals paid for along with all the excursion fees. The only thing we paid for was $4 to go jet skiing.

This is the boat we took to travel to the multiple islands of Tianmu Lake.


On the boat


This is a picture taken from one of the islands we explored.


Getting ready to jet ski.


This is one of the best parts of the trip!
That night we went to the Yushui Hot Spring. These hot springs were awesome. There were 30 pools in total. They are man-made so I'm not sure if they just get the water transported or what. But anyway, there are 30 different pools. They all have medical qualities: herbs, or some sort of soothing, replenishing purposes for your body. My favorite was the coconut milk pool, the lavender pool, and the rose pedal pool. I could stay in them for hours. The scent was just so relaxing. The picture you see above is the most crowded pool. (Most of them just had up to 5 people). The reason why this one's so crowded is because it's the "Kissing Fish" spa. Essentially it's full of tiny fish that suck the dead skin off of you!


Coming out of the Kissing Fish spa. At first it was kind of fun and it tickled but then after a while I felt kind of freaked out. Plus it was a lot cooler than the other pools to accommodate the fish. The other pools were nice and hot!


They had signs like this everywhere to guide you to all the different spas. The layout was very cool!-very earthy with lots of plants and canopies. It made me feel like I was in a rain forest!

New Callings

Ramsey and I got new callings in our branch. I am one of two YW advisors and Ramsey is Gospel Doctrine teacher. My job is to plan the YW activities with the other advisor named Jenessa. I am also expected to attend all YW and combined youth events. Here is my first youth event that I attended: a youth district dance.


By the time this picture was taken, a lot of kids went home. The dance was very long 7-11 PM. I had a lot of fun dancing with the girls in my branch. They all seemed surprised that I knew the words to their music. What can I say Driver's Ed will make you whiz in all the youngster music.

A Trip to Wuzhen 乌镇

Ramsey and I were invited along with the other foreign teachers in the department to go on a little day excursion to the small water village called Wuzhen. It has be preserved by the government to retain its ancient architecture and has since turned into a tourist spot. If you want to feel like you're part of ancient China or simply want to feel like you're in a kungfu movie, you must visit this village! It's so beautiful and peaceful. I felt like I didn't have a care in the world. I would love to just sit on one of those boats and write Chinese poetry all day. =)

This is a view from the top of one of the bridges. Interestingly enough, I became another tourist attraction and several people took pictures with me on this bridge.

There are a lot of small alleys like this everywhere in this village.


They always know how to feed us! Here we're eating a multiple course meal-all very tasty! From left to right (Japanese teacher, Korean teacher, Jane (Ms. Zhang's Assistant), 2 Scottish visiting professors, Ramsey and me (The only English teachers), and Ms. Zhang (Head of foreign department).


This is where we stopped to drink tea. Well you know Ramsey and I had juice!


Bora (The Korean teacher) and me

You can take a boat ride for less than a buck and go down these waterways.


These are the men that take you down the waterway.

This is a temple. I wish we could go to the top but the building isn't structurally sound to handle tourists.


A lot of cafes like this one can be found everywhere. Sigh! It was perfect weather. The sun was shining and it wasn't hot. I wish I could visit this village every weekend but alas it's 2 1/2 hours away from Shanghai. I'm so in love with this place. If you want to see a lot more pictures visit my photo album titled "Wuzhen" on my facebook-there's tons more!

Halloween 2009

Ramsey and I got invited to a Halloween party hosted by the Archibalds from our branch. I was able to invite my two friends BingBing and Kerry. There were a lot of small children there so it wasn't the most exciting for us young childless adults, but the food was awesome. The best part was the After party. A couple of us watched UFC at the Smoots' apartment.

This is Kerry (left) and BingBing (right). I was introduced to them by Shizhang.

Kerry and BingBing. This is their first Halloween party.

Ramsey dressed up as a jiu-jitsu student and I dressed up as a traditional kungfu fighter.

Some funky pumpkins

The best part of the party was that there was a lot of good food. I had two bowls of chili with cheese and sourcream and crackers. I was so happy to fill my tummy with American food. =)

Ramsey had a lot of fun socializing with some of the guys in our branch. We three girls just kind of hung out at the table by ourselves. haha

Various fun snacks

This masterpiece is supposed to look like dirt with worms chillin' on top. The dirt is actually crushed up oreos and inside, you'll find cream. So it tasted like cookies and cream. The cream was dyed orange which was extra festive. BingBing loved this cake.

There were a variety of prizes for costumes. Ramsey won "Most Creative Costume" and we got two certificates to Baskin Robbins. There were Cowboys, Indians, National Geographic explorers, angels, witches etc. The Archibalds costume was very cute-They both wore shirts that said "Struck by Cupid" and their baby was cupid!

Counterculture Excerpts

Some more essay excerpts from my students!

Student #1: "To tell the truth, I do not like counterculture at all. I think they are disgusting. Because we are Chinese, more or less we are traditional and we like the normal thing. These people wear strange clothes and so on. In China, we seldom see counterculture people, and these people are always looked down by others. Maybe this is the difference between Chinese and Western culture. Countercultures are quite normal in Western culture. People think they are cool, beautiful, and unique and not disgusting. But in Chinese, people who are counterculture will be isolated by others. Parents won't allow their children to play with counterculture people."

Student #2:"Of all the counterculture movements, I like Emo best. Emo is the most normal, and it is quite close to our life. I think other subcultures are a little bit strange and horrible."

Student #3:"Everything exists for some reason, so does counterculture. You can see a lot of young men dressed strangely. I think it's not bad enough to be serious. We can take that as relaxation. There are some things I can't bear like gays or suicidal behavior for attention. Those who dress or act too strange is unacceptable for many in China. Meanwhile, people's gender should be clear. If men don't behave as men and so do the women, what society will it be! That's a total trouble and failure. For me, who I love must be manly. To sum up, the natural phenomenon which is anti-orthodox culture is unacceptable to me. If one is intentional to be different, I won't like he or she at all."

Student #4: "I'm interested in the Goth subculture the most. Not only because their appearance but also their ideas. They have black hair, black lips, black clothes and black nails. It seems that almost every part of them is black except their skin. They all choose to live in their own way even though they don't fit in which how most people live. If you want to have a chat with someone at midnight, perhaps, you only can find a Goth during that time. They are also free thinkers and don't accept the moral rules of society. So they banded together to associate with other free thinkers. They won't obey the stereotype. I'm quite appreciate with their free thoughts and their black style. It looks so cool in my view just like these vampires who only appeared in TV series."

Student # 5 "Punks always like bright colors. They have exaggerated hairstyles, especially boys. Girls wear black eye makeup to be cooler. Why do I think they are interesting? I choose to think that they're cool and free. Punk is crazy. They sing songs about their own feelings, no cheating. They sing songs on high voice, no hiding. I like Avril Lavigne's style. She is famous in China. She uses direct words when she says "Hey hey you you, I don't like your girlfriend.....I think you need a new one."

Student #6: "Hip-hop" is becoming a sort of attitude, fashion, music and sport so on. It is becoming more mainstream culture. Hip hop was came from the street. Black people have not enough money to pay for the ticket for clubs, so they are dancing on the street. I like hip hop very much. It makes me feel high. And it suitable for dancing. everybody can enjoy themselves."

Teaching

So because of a request from my brother Jeremy, I will tell you a little about my teaching.

So I work twice a week. The whole month of September I didn't work a lot because the freshman hadn't registered yet.

So my teaching schedule was: Wed and Fri 8:00am-9:20 am. I just taught Sophomores a culture class: "The Culture of English-speaking countries."
Now that I have freshman conversation classes starting since October. I teach Wed 8:00-9:20 & 9:30-10:50 am and Fri 8:00-9:20 & 9:30-10:50 am, break for lunch and then 1:30-2:50 PM.

So as you can see it's not too bad and I get my apt and utilities payed for and also a pretty good salary-so this is the first time I'm very happy with my earnings in comparison to how much work I put in.

I love using powerpoint with my presentations because I feel like they gain more from visuals and seeing the written word. Here are a list of topics I'm teaching about in my culture class this semester:

1	Introduction
2	Geography & Demographics of the U.S.A.
3	Food, Eating, Table Manners, Etiquette
4	Music, Dance, Performing Arts
5	Movies, Television, Cinematic Icons
6	The Counter Culture of the U.S.A. & the U.K.
7	Fashion, Folk dress, Shopping, Money, Economy
8	Literature, Folklore, Poetry, Theology
9	Holidays
10	Education, School culture
11	Art & Humanities
12	Animals, Plants, Pets, Geographic oddities unique to English speaking countries
13	Family, Dating, Relationships, Marriage, Divorce
14	Sports, Recreation, Games, Technology, Driving
15	Politics, Government, Leaders
16	U.S. History/WW2
17	Australia & New Zealand History
18	U.K., Republic of Ireland, Canada History
19	Other English-Speaking countries & territories Survey & History
20	Final Review
21	Final Exam

The music class was really fun because I played a lot of types from many different decades and they really liked The Temptations and Abba the most (esp "Dancing Queen"). We had a little dance party at the end of the lesson.

I've only had one class period for my Freshman Conversation so I can't say much about that now. But I can tell it will be fun. When I walked into the classroom for the first time, everyone gasped and one said, "You are soooo beaut-e-ful!" I can't exactly write out the way she said it. haha. I think they were so surprised I was young. I can imagine they were picturing someone a lot different looking being their English teacher.

Well, if you have any questions, by all means comment and I will update this post. I really don't know what else to say except I love my students and they are all very sweet!


I will now leave you with some excerpts of some of my students' writing:

Student #1: "I prefer America food to British food. One of the reasons is America food always made by cheese and I love cheese very much. Cheese can make fishes tasty and appetizing. My favorite food are pizza, pasta, and burges. The second reason is America food is easy to cook. If I want to make pasta, all I need is meat, noodles, and cheese, and then put them altogether to an oven."

Student #2:"I like American food better than food in British because I love doughnuts. Someone said if you love doughnuts, go to America. And America is doughnut's birthplace, also produce excellent doughnuts. I love doughnut not only its wonderful tasty and cute shape but also it's related to my sweet childhood. When I was young, about 10, every Friday night I had English class after school. You know, that was a disaster for a little kid. Nevertheless, my mum often bought me a doughnut as a prize. The taste I always keep in my memory. Although I had never eaten American doughnuts, I guess that it might be the most delectable dessert in the world. I am sure one day I'll enjoy its true delicious."

Student #3: "While in respect of American or British foods, I just have no idea. But I am a curious girl, I'd like to try something new, something that I've never even tasted before."

Meet the Chens' Doggies

Shizhang's family has two cute dogs named Lily and Baobao. (Baobao means "baby" in Chinese). I go to Mrs.Chen's home every Monday and Thursday and get Chinese lessons. It's really good for me that she doesn't speak English because I think I would fall back on that a lot. So I am forced to explain everything in Chinese and I think it's helping my language skills a ton.

Sometimes my brain starts getting fried so it's nice to randomly pick up a soft dog and cuddle it to give my brain a little bit of a rest. Sometimes, I even have a dog on my lap during the lesson. Just the act of petting lessens the stress. Usually I'm really fresh at the start and then at about the end of the lesson, my mind just shuts off and my mind's eye blurs. Or sometimes I think Mrs.Chen just speaks faster at the end of the lesson. I can't tell which one applies.

Picking up Baobao. Super soft dog!


Lily is the nicest. She doesn't nibble on me and she's super calm.

She used to get upset when I picked her up but she's ok now. ;)


Ramsey likes this pic the best. He said it was funny that we both blinked.

She looks like a possessed demon dog in this pic. But nevertheless a loving demon dog.

Dinner Party...shall I say feast?!

Shizhang's parents were so sweet to invite Ramsey and me to their family gathering for the holiday. We had a feast! 5-6 course meal family style. I got to experience real traditional Shanghai food at a really nice restaurant. Some of the dishes were amazing and others well...let's not talk about the stinky tofu and how it reminds me of dog poopy. Everyone was super nice and I made another friend around my age. (Actually this time older-Kevin's age) Her name is Polly and she's Shizhang's cousin. She was able to translate everyone speaking Shanghainese because you know if I have a hard enough time with Mandarin don't get me started on Shanghainese.

Ramsey and me with Shizhang's parents and grandparents

My two favorite dishes.

Wo Wo Tou Pei Qiezi (Eggplant and meat 窝窝头配茄子)

andYouYu Shao Rou (Roasted meat & squid with tea tree mushrooms 鱿鱼烧肉 )

You can tell that I'm talking because everyone looks really bored-it takes me forever to say exactly what I want to say...er um er um.

Nanjing Road

So I got kicked off but I broke through the firewall again. This time I'm not going to be too cocky cuz I see how easily they catch on. They are very clever. Thank you Jeremy for posting my last post.


Well I made a new friend. Her name is Jenny and she is a sweetheart. I was introduced to her by Shizhang. Her dream is to go to grad school in Australia. She is having a difficult time passing the necessary tests. I noticed her problem is usually shyness. She doesn't respond to proctors very well even though she is very fluent with me. She just closes up and gives average answers. I gave her the advice to set herself apart-make up crazy stories. We practiced it and she improved a lot and she really engaged the listener. So I plan on tutoring her regularly for her next oral test she will take on the 31st.

During the holiday, Jenny, her brother Alex, Ramsey, and I went to the famous Nanjing road. Jenny took us to her favorite restaurant-a Sichuan restaurant called Hou Wei Xiang La Guan
It was awesome cuz it was kind of hidden on the 11th floor of a shopping mall-but really trendy. Jenny said mostly just the locals know about it so we we escaped from a lot of the tourists that were there for the holiday.

One funny thing that happened to me while walking down Nanjing road is that a Chinese couple visiting Shanghai (presumably from a small town) asked if they could take a picture with me. That was weird. I felt like a celebrity. I wonder if I am the first whitey they've touched.

While I was on Nanjing road I got some anti-itch mosquito balm from the pharmacy. The mosquitoes have been eating me alive! I need a net around my bed! Actually I just go to bed with socks on now. That seems to help. Hopefully none of these blood-sucking creatures carry any eastern diseases.
Ok picture time!

The famous Nanjing Road...it's not normally THIS crazy. It's the holiday.

Video from Nanjing Road

Eating at the Sichuan restaurant. We had catfish (nianyu). It was tasty!
And yes that's a ghostly orb hanging about my neck.

A view of Pudong from the road. The Bund was blocked off because of construction so we couldn't walk near the river. Sniff.

Battle wounds. Yes. They feasted happily.

Grave of the Fireflies

*********I have updated my "lastest 15 flicks viewed" sidebar on my blog so check it out.**********

I just downloaded the anime film “Grave of the Fireflies.” This movie touched me greatly. The story is located in Japan during WW2. A 14 -year boy must do everything he can to ensure the survival of him and his baby sister during bomb raids. The film explores the depth of human souls. What would you do if you lived in these conditions? What we think we would do and what we actually would do might surprise you. Would you be the one giving up your last grain of rice to another or instead anxiously gobble it down? If you were starving, would you steal? If a family member verbally abused you would you swallow your pride for food and shelter or would you try to make it on your own? A 14-year old boy is faced to make all these decisions that I don’t even think grown men could handle. This film makes me again grateful for everything I have. I have shelter, I have food-all of my needs are satisfied. At this point in my life I just cater to my wants. How lucky I am! It’s interesting how often I take basic things for granted.

Lately I have been having fun walking down the street and handing out money to toothless old women with cups and flower children. There are a lot of beggars on one particular street and you know if you give them money they can eat a meal. In America, you only see middle-aged men asking for money-usually for drugs. People here get so excited about 20 cents! 4 yuan (58 cents) can feed one quite well if you know where to look. I will often buy roses from the little children for a dollar. It made me sad that on such a large holiday, (Mid-Autumn Festival), children weren’t eating mooncakes like they should have been doing, but instead were working. I call them the flower children, because they will literally follow you home with bunches of flower, pleading with you buy them, sometimes with desperation in their eyes. I don’t even mind just giving them money for free. Honestly, to me giving up 10 yuan a night on beggars is nothing to me, but means everything to them. There is a lot of diversity in social classes, even though this is communist China. Shanghai is so rich and yet you can still find the poor.

There is a man that hangs out with them that I call the monkey man. He has a pet capuchin that he always lets me cuddle and pet in exchange I give him 1 yuan. This monkey always has a look of hunger in his eyes. I always think about bringing banana chips or nuts but always seem to forget. I gave the monkey a coin and placed it in his hand, and he almost tried to eat it. It was rather adorable. The police always move us along though-I think they have something against loitering here.