another party at my house - pumpkin carving and apple powder (instead of apple crisp).
Sunday, December 2, 2007
back again
So....the other day I was with Lois and we were looking for a place to have dinner. We walked past a restaurant called "The Blog Restaurant." Thinking I didn't know the meaning of "blog," Lois explained that it was like an online diary that you write in everyday. Oops....and I thought you just had to write in it every three or four months. :)
Yeah, I have obviously not met my hopes of writing more frequently. Oh, so many stories have come and gone. I have to delete old ones in my "inbox" to make room for new ones; therefore, they are gone before they get written.
It seems like this semester just started, and already it is coming to an end. I have found that working with the PhD students is quite different than the undergrads. The biggest difference is in their schedules. Many of them are married, some have children, most are working or teaching, all are doing research - their hectic schedules make it nearly impossible for me to get together with them outside of class. They have been hardworking students, and we have fun in class. We meet together for four hours at a time, once a week.
They are continually asking me to edit their research papers which they intend to publish. I tell them it would be easier for me to understand if it were written in Chinese. For example, a quote from a Material Science PhD candidate's paper: "The reason was that the error was little when it dealt with the crack growth in straight line in the crack checking stage and when it went on growing, the surface of the crack cross-section would become rough and irregular, which demonstrated the fractal effect character." You see what I mean? Ugh.
A few weeks ago in class we were working on reading graphs and charts. I strolled around the room as the students worked in pairs. I spent a little extra time helping one young man who was really struggling with the exercise. As I was closing the class time, I thanked him for his hard work and gave him a thumbs up in front of the class. I few hours later I received this email from him: "Thank you to praise me today in the class,i know my English speaking is vrey bad,thanks your encouragement ." Cool.
I've posted some pictures of my trips to Beijing. I've been to Beijing twice since I've been here. It's like going to New York City - both in distance from home and excitement. The first time I went was for the National Day Holiday in October; Marilyn and I met some friends from Wheaton. Then I had to go back again to renew my passport.
I invited my students over during the Halloween season for pumpkin carving and making apple crisp. Two failed attempts at apple crisp left me a little discouraged. The first time we burned it. It actually didn't taste that bad, but the students thought it was "too sweet." The next week a new group of students came over and the young lady who took charge of the apple crisp making decided that it needed two cups of flour instead of one. So....as you can imagine we were eating baked apples covered in powder. Surprisingly, they ate most of it. Oh, it was awful. With every bite, puffs of white powder came out of our mouths as we talked and laughed.
With the approach of Christmas, Marilyn and I are going to attempt Christmas cookie making parties. Stayed tuned for the results.
Yeah, I have obviously not met my hopes of writing more frequently. Oh, so many stories have come and gone. I have to delete old ones in my "inbox" to make room for new ones; therefore, they are gone before they get written.
It seems like this semester just started, and already it is coming to an end. I have found that working with the PhD students is quite different than the undergrads. The biggest difference is in their schedules. Many of them are married, some have children, most are working or teaching, all are doing research - their hectic schedules make it nearly impossible for me to get together with them outside of class. They have been hardworking students, and we have fun in class. We meet together for four hours at a time, once a week.
They are continually asking me to edit their research papers which they intend to publish. I tell them it would be easier for me to understand if it were written in Chinese. For example, a quote from a Material Science PhD candidate's paper: "The reason was that the error was little when it dealt with the crack growth in straight line in the crack checking stage and when it went on growing, the surface of the crack cross-section would become rough and irregular, which demonstrated the fractal effect character." You see what I mean? Ugh.
A few weeks ago in class we were working on reading graphs and charts. I strolled around the room as the students worked in pairs. I spent a little extra time helping one young man who was really struggling with the exercise. As I was closing the class time, I thanked him for his hard work and gave him a thumbs up in front of the class. I few hours later I received this email from him: "Thank you to praise me today in the class,i know my English speaking is vrey bad,thanks your encouragement ." Cool.
I've posted some pictures of my trips to Beijing. I've been to Beijing twice since I've been here. It's like going to New York City - both in distance from home and excitement. The first time I went was for the National Day Holiday in October; Marilyn and I met some friends from Wheaton. Then I had to go back again to renew my passport.
I invited my students over during the Halloween season for pumpkin carving and making apple crisp. Two failed attempts at apple crisp left me a little discouraged. The first time we burned it. It actually didn't taste that bad, but the students thought it was "too sweet." The next week a new group of students came over and the young lady who took charge of the apple crisp making decided that it needed two cups of flour instead of one. So....as you can imagine we were eating baked apples covered in powder. Surprisingly, they ate most of it. Oh, it was awful. With every bite, puffs of white powder came out of our mouths as we talked and laughed.
With the approach of Christmas, Marilyn and I are going to attempt Christmas cookie making parties. Stayed tuned for the results.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Getting back in the groove
I've been back in China for almost three weeks now. I've had some time to adjust, which has been a huge blessing, before getting back into the classroom . I had to clean my apartment from top to bottom and make several shopping trips for more housewares. Marilyn, my neighbor and teammate, gave me five boxes of kitchen stuff and misc. housewares which helped a lot.
In the two years that I have been gone, China's economic growth is very evident. There are more cars and scooters on the roads. It seems it is no longer the bicycle kingdom but the scooter kingdom. Cell phones, MP3 players, and manicured nails are very fashionable. My teaching salary use to go a lot farther; it seems prices have increased on everything. One thing that hasn't changed is the friendliness of people, especially my students.
I met my first class yesterday. I spent the first 20 min. or so introducing myself. I told them about my family, where i went to school, where i was from, etc. I told them i went to school at Wheaton in Illinois, and I asked if they knew any famous cities in Illinois? They were silent. One boy asked if i could give them a clue. So i said Michael Jordan played basketball in this city. One boy thought out loud, "Bulls," and then said,"Chicago." They know everything that has to do with the NBA. Then I told them my younger brother lives in Tennessee and asked if they knew anything famous from Tennessee. One boy started slowly telling about a famous American president who built a dam after WWII, etc, etc. I guess it was Hoover, that's the only famous dam i could think of. So, you see they know American history info that I had no clue about. Then I mentioned Nashville, famous for country music, and they said, "You mean Country Roads Take me Home?" I said, "More like the Dixie Chicks. Do you know the Dixie Chicks?" Blank stares. I then said, "Ok, you know Elvis? He lived in Tennessee." Blank stares. "Elvis Presley," I said. Blank stares. "Can you sing us one of his famous songs," they asked? So I tried a little of "You ain't nothing but a hound dog." More blank stares. It was one of those times where you must have another foreigner there to laugh with. I was crackin' up all by myself. I've got to stick to cities with famous NBA teams.
The rest of the class went fairly smoothly. I did discover, however, that there are two boys in the class who have basically no English. They are athletes. One of them, after his classmates told me who he was, I recognized. He is a kung fu expert; I've seen him perform in big performances at our school. He's a champion in the state or even the country, I can't remember which. He's really good. So, I feel very protected in my class. The other one is a basketball player. So, I had to emphasize it's the effort that's important in this class, not necessarily your English ability, since they are all at different levels. I wrote on the board, "Come to class and participate=success (pass)" I had one of the girls translate that into Chinese to the two boys. Kung fu managed to spit out a "sanka you-a" after he heard that. When basketball boy introduced himself during class introductions he started out with, "my English is a very poor," and ended with, " I sinka you are very beautiful." I laughed and said that's not going to help him pass the class. Everyone laughed (they got my joke!).
It's great to be back in the classroom. I feel so much more confident and prepared than I did before. Next week I'll meet the rest of my classes - PhD students. All together I have one class of M.A. students and 3 classes of PhD's. They are all eager to improve their English.
I've posted some pictures below of my apartment and a big dinner with 15 of my friends when I first returned to China.
Thanks for reading.
In the two years that I have been gone, China's economic growth is very evident. There are more cars and scooters on the roads. It seems it is no longer the bicycle kingdom but the scooter kingdom. Cell phones, MP3 players, and manicured nails are very fashionable. My teaching salary use to go a lot farther; it seems prices have increased on everything. One thing that hasn't changed is the friendliness of people, especially my students.
I met my first class yesterday. I spent the first 20 min. or so introducing myself. I told them about my family, where i went to school, where i was from, etc. I told them i went to school at Wheaton in Illinois, and I asked if they knew any famous cities in Illinois? They were silent. One boy asked if i could give them a clue. So i said Michael Jordan played basketball in this city. One boy thought out loud, "Bulls," and then said,"Chicago." They know everything that has to do with the NBA. Then I told them my younger brother lives in Tennessee and asked if they knew anything famous from Tennessee. One boy started slowly telling about a famous American president who built a dam after WWII, etc, etc. I guess it was Hoover, that's the only famous dam i could think of. So, you see they know American history info that I had no clue about. Then I mentioned Nashville, famous for country music, and they said, "You mean Country Roads Take me Home?" I said, "More like the Dixie Chicks. Do you know the Dixie Chicks?" Blank stares. I then said, "Ok, you know Elvis? He lived in Tennessee." Blank stares. "Elvis Presley," I said. Blank stares. "Can you sing us one of his famous songs," they asked? So I tried a little of "You ain't nothing but a hound dog." More blank stares. It was one of those times where you must have another foreigner there to laugh with. I was crackin' up all by myself. I've got to stick to cities with famous NBA teams.
The rest of the class went fairly smoothly. I did discover, however, that there are two boys in the class who have basically no English. They are athletes. One of them, after his classmates told me who he was, I recognized. He is a kung fu expert; I've seen him perform in big performances at our school. He's a champion in the state or even the country, I can't remember which. He's really good. So, I feel very protected in my class. The other one is a basketball player. So, I had to emphasize it's the effort that's important in this class, not necessarily your English ability, since they are all at different levels. I wrote on the board, "Come to class and participate=success (pass)" I had one of the girls translate that into Chinese to the two boys. Kung fu managed to spit out a "sanka you-a" after he heard that. When basketball boy introduced himself during class introductions he started out with, "my English is a very poor," and ended with, " I sinka you are very beautiful." I laughed and said that's not going to help him pass the class. Everyone laughed (they got my joke!).
It's great to be back in the classroom. I feel so much more confident and prepared than I did before. Next week I'll meet the rest of my classes - PhD students. All together I have one class of M.A. students and 3 classes of PhD's. They are all eager to improve their English.
I've posted some pictures below of my apartment and a big dinner with 15 of my friends when I first returned to China.
Thanks for reading.
Here's my apartment: (top to bottom) My office/spare bedroom with my new desk chair that i had to push home uphill about a mile.
Next is my wall of maps. I love maps. Next is my kitchen with upper cabinets so high you've got to be in the NBA to reach them. I have a microwave, small convection oven and two gas burners. I made Marilyn watch me the first time I lit it in case it exploded. Below that is my bedroom with the new comforter the school provided.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
more reunion
reuniting with old friends. we can hardly speak to each other, but we understand a lot.
Look good?
this was NOT one of my favorites - celery with the "soft bone of the pig" aka pig's cartilidge (I think)...a little chewy, a little crunchy
2007 T.A. team
Marilyn (8th), Miriam (1st), Michelle (1st), Dorothy (8th), Becky (7th), Amy (3rd), Ann (3rd)(years teaching in China) (l to r, back row, front row)
Thursday, July 26, 2007
beginning blogger
In an effort to keep up with the twenty-first century, I thought I better do a blog. So, I started this blog, and I'm not even sure I know what blogging is. Let me know what you think as I attempt to make this site interesting, entertaining, and informative about my work in China. The first questions is, how do you like the name "Green Tea with Red?" In China, every social occasion is accompanied by green tea. So I'm inviting my readers to sit down with me (Red) and have some green tea while sharing thoughts and stories together.
See you again soon.
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