From pea farmer to student

Good rainy day to you!

Yes, the rain has returned! Today I felt like I taught in a mossy, drippy wet forest. We drove to school shrouded in fog and mist. And it pretty much remained that way the rest of the day.

This morning Rachael came to observe my class. She arrived at my class before I did, and she told my students I was sick and had to go to the hospital. Well, my students reacted all very differently, I heard. Some students looked genuinely distraught and wanted to know how I was. It didn't even phase other students. The class secretary, who keeps the attendance and makes me sign a piece of paper every day, quickly scratched my name off the paper. Wow, how quickly I can be replaced! :)

Well, I walked into class after this happened, and everyone was either very confused or very happy. I'd like to think that most of them were very happy. Rachael told me what she had told them and we tried to reassure them it was only a joke. But they didn't understand. Some looked relieved, and others still asked me over and over how I was. I said I was fine and never went to the hospital, but they couldn't understand that. The class secretary in the front row just looked peeved.

The rest of the day I received text messages from my other students who weren't even in that class this morning. They had heard I had supposedly been in the hospital, and wanted to know how I was.

Anyway, the rest of the day was good. I went to lunch at the school cafeteria with one my students, who is from a very rural place in neighboring Anhui province. She is a very good, but quiet and sweet-spirited student. We ordered two steaming bowls of noodles with pieces of beef thrown on top. I paid for it, and she barely protested, that's how poor she is. Usually I can rarely pay for any meal with students, because they fight me to the death on how they want to pay for it.

She is the daughter of pea farmers. Her brother couldn't go to university, so he repairs cars. The family pooled all their limited resources into paying for this girl's education. She told me how she always had to pick peas in the fields as she grew up. (She thinks America must be wonderful because there are machines to help with the farms). But she didn't seem bitter; she seemed genuinely thankful that she was able to come to school at all, and wants to make her family proud.

While we were eating I noticed that her hands were the color purple, with red splotches. She had major chilblains, and noticed that I also had chilblains, although not as severely as she did. So we (the poor Chinese farmer and the middle class English teacher) sat for a minute comparing our painful and itchy chilblains. My heart ached for her, although I did feel a bit proud that I could suffer just a tiny bit, too. It was like we were kindred spirits, since I can't even imagine what it is to live like the majority of Chinese.

The rest of the time we chatted and I watched her devour her bowl of soup. I think she's one of my new favorite students.

At 4 p.m. I got to help teach a special class for more advanced non-English majors who speak English, if that makes any sense. So there were students in there with majors like engineering and international trade and their English was pretty good. It was fun teaching a different class, although some of the students sort of acted like vultures, since 80 percent of them were male.

All in all it was a pretty rewarding day. I hope you also have a wonderfully rewarding day!