Extraordinary Saturday

Wow, I haven't stopped to breathe all day! What an awesome, busy, blessed day it has been!

This morning I managed to call some people and work on lesson plans. I also went on a 2 mile walk around the track. Then I ate lunch with Rachael and her students. I washed the massive piles of dishes, because it's therapeutic for me, I suppose. Afterward, I went to go print my lesson plans off. But, alas, my flash drive was corrupted and I lost all of my data! Not so cool at all.

But I didn't have time to worry about it, because my special student I study with came over. Most of what we talked about I can't tell you in this blog. You'll just have to wait until I return to America. ;) It's an extremely long and wonderful story, with lots of ups and downs. The bottom line is that the spirit was working, and she became a sister this evening! Wow wow wow. The family continues to grow. Now I'll have to work to connect her with other local brothers and sisters.

Remind me to tell you about it when I see you again in person. :)

Rachael and I walked her to the bus stop at about 9 p.m. after a really late dinner. I came up very happily to my room, just contemplating everything. Oh, yeah, after I washed another gigantic pile of dishes. But I didn't care.

I was sitting at my desk, when all of a sudden, I heard the windows violently shaking, and student screaming their heads off outside. I ran to the living room window to look out. The calm, cloudy blanket of 80 degree weather was instantly shattered by the most outrageous wind and rain and lightning. The trees were bent in half, and I thought they'd all snap. My next thought was, "He is returning!" When I realized that wasn't true, I thought, "the building's going to collapse!" But that didn't happen either.

So Rachael and I were magnetically pulled to the windows, watching the eerily fascinating scene unfold outside. The rain came down in sheets, the wind whipped the piles of trash and debris high above the trees, and everything on the buildings shook. Students who had just been playing basketball or chatting along the sidewalk, scattered in a million different directions. They were all shrieking their heads off. People were leaning out of the windows in the apartment building facing ours, also shrieking. I think they just wanted to join in the chaos.

Anyway, it was a rather momentous end to a momentous day. Thanks for your thoughts and encouragement!!!!!!!

Park Walk

(With my students after lunchtime at the park).
(Taking a picture at the park. I look like I'm at the starting block of a race, and they look like tap dancers).
(Wow, beauty does exist in this city!)
(Karen found one, single orange that hadn't been plucked by students. Good job, Karen!)


All of a sudden it went from bitter winter to blazing summer in about 2 days. Hopefully the weather will settle down to something in between. It was about 80 degrees and extremely humid today. But since it is still technically winter, you still have to wear seasonally appropriate clothing. I managed to get away with wearing a 3/4 sleeve shirt. But I was still sweating. My students continued to wear sweaters or long sleeve shirts. Thankfully they aren't wearing their winter jackets any longer.

It has been a rather strange day. I had office hours this morning, and didn't do anything productive. I just wanted to talk or read. Then I went to class. My voice has still not recovered, so I was going to use the microphone again. But the microphone wasn't working, so I sounded like a dying baby animal trying to talk during the whole class. Fortunately it was my best class, so they were mostly understanding and behaved well.

Like I mentioned yesterday, I had groups of students form "political parties" with a platform. They had to give presidential speeches. There was one given by my student Vincent. It was so cute and great. Here's his speech. Imagine a very tiny boy and a tiny voice getting all fired up:

"Good morning! Ladies and gentlemen, I'm glad to see you! Today I'll run for the Blue Sky student president. I represent the South Party. Our main aim is to make a better food in canteen [cafeteria].

As we all know, food is the most important thing in our life. Better food can make you stronger and more beautiful. Now your diet is in bad condition. Our South Party can help you!

I promise if I become president, first I will destroy all the old canteen and built some new canteen. Then I'll lower the price of food so that you can eat meat every meal.

Believe me! You can have a better diet! Thank you!"

I think I'd choose his party. Imagine being able to eat meat every day here! My dear little students were also very enthusiastic about this candidate.

In other news, I went to lunch with two of my students. This time they chose strips of pork fat and rice for my meal. It was pretty hearty and I'm glad I'm not such a picky eater anymore.

Afterward, we wandered around in the mugginess in a little park on campus that I hadn't been to before. It was pretty beautiful and peaceful, especially for Nanchang. There was actually some grass, a little lake, and a lot of flowering trees. It seemed too good to be true. It was really strange. I've never heard the city so quiet, and it was the first time in a long time that I've been around anything resembling nature.

The place was pretty deserted. We walked across a bridge on the lake. On the other side of this pretty lake, there was a man with a wheelbarrow. He was probably from one of the cafeterias, because his wheelbarrow was filled with half-eaten food and trash that you always see outside the cafeterias. I watched in horror as he tipped that wheelbarrow right into the lake! It seemed too awful to be true. Then he walked away. My students quietly grumbled about it, and I was thinking, "that must be a crime!" But of course it wasn't. Worse things than that happen all the time. It just made me sad because they try to create beauty around them, but then they destroy it pretty quickly.

Later I was reading a fresh copy of the China Daily and stumbled upon an interesting notice that was published in that paper. In Chinese and English, there was a notice written to a certain woman in Shanghai, whom they named. Apparently there is a huge building project underway in Shanghai, and this one woman is standing in the way of its completion. She refuses to move or be compensated for relocation. Now the city, or something like that, says they are going on with the demolition. It is a final appeal for her to accept the settlement. They must have printed that notice in a lot of newspapers. It was so fascinating, because I've heard about this happening in cities like Beijing, but it was just strange to read a notice where they basically said she was crazy for not accepting the offer in the name of "progress." And then they essentially said it doesn't matter what she wants anyway, because they're going to tear down her residence whether she likes it or not. In my head, I'm secretly cheering for this woman, who is being denounced across the newspapers.

In other news, we went to English corner outside and sweated through it for nearly an hour. About 10 or 12 of my students appeared for the occasion. We had a great time chatting. Never have they seemed so funny or human or real. Today they revealed more dimensions of their personalities, which are hidden under layers of idealism and conformity.

Boy, this day has worn me out! But I wouldn't want it any other way. :)

Best of Days and Worst of Days

(Our team, plus Jodi's family members, playing knockout recently on a beautiful day).


Howdy from Nanchang!

After three of the most beautiful days Nanchang has seen in about a million years supposedly, we are currently in a couple of the nastiest days. All of a sudden it is pretty warm for this time of year--about 75 degrees. The sun is no longer shining, because it is blocked by a consistent haze of pollution.

Yesterday I felt like I wanted to pass out, because I could not escape from the smell in the air. It was like the entire city reeked of burning trash. Even in class, that's all you could breath. Today it's slightly better, but not much. It still smells quite stale outside, and the haze is just hanging like a gray shroud over everything.

I wouldn't complain that much, but I'm battling a cold or something right now. I have a pretty bad cough, which isn't helped by the very poor air quality, and by inhaling chalk dust from class.

Anyway, despite that, my spirits are still pretty upbeat. Relationships are great, the culture is great, and classes are mostly great.

This morning I had two classes. It is strange, but the first class was the worst one I've had, probably. It is with my business English class, which is my most gigantic and craziest class. It is always my goal to keep the class just below the level of controlled chaos.

Today I wore a microphone while I was teaching, since my voice is shot. Students can hear me much better, but then I feel like I'm performing on a stage or something. We were learning about American government. I tried to explain everything as simply as possible, but people looked really confused, or they just fell asleep from boredom. Nobody ever falls asleep in that class, because they are always busting with energy. So I knew I wasn't connecting with them today very well.

Right after the ten minute break, I started coughing and then choking on chalk dust. Students were no longer sleeping, because their formerly boring teacher was now uncontrollably coughing up a lung. I tried drinking water, but I could barely stop coughing long enough. I was coughing so much that my eyes were leaking, and my nose was running. My little crazy students now looked very concerned. When I finally stopped coughing, I tried to start talking again. But talking just made me cough more.

Somehow we managed to get through the rest of the class, in between episodes of continual coughing. I was happy to run out of there when it was over, as were my students, except for one who paused long enough to tell me to take better care of myself. :)

After that mini disaster, I then taught another class, which probably turned out to be the best class yet. I only coughed a tiny bit, and I was able to engage the students better. I revised my strategy in how I communicated the basics of American government with them. They were very interested. We also talked about different political parties, practiced voting, and they gave election speeches. It was all a little foreign to them, but they loved it.

Groups formed their own political parties and gave speeches in front of the class on how to make campus better. For example: install heat in the dormitories, give the students better food in the canteen, and make class sizes smaller. They were all so articulate and passionate. I was so proud of them. And it was extremely interesting to talk about political values in a Chinese classroom.

So my lessons were redeemed today, thankfully. I will continue to make mistakes, but it's just a part of the process of becoming a better teacher, and getting students to think critically about the world around them.