12/22/07
I have been giving exams this week to my non-majors students. I co-teach these students with other teachers (Chinese English Teachers). I didn't think I would have to give them an exam, but I found out a couple weeks ago I had to judge their speaking ability. Two teachers that I teach with suggested the best way to assess this would be to interview all of them, all 500 of them. I reluctantly agreed and have thus spent 20 hours the last week two weeks choosing from a list of about 10 questions and listening to responses in Chinese-English (I specify Chinese-English because it isn't normal English, it is draining to listen to and requires a lot of patience and head nodding. It breeds a whole new type of mental toughness, or insanity.). But I made it through. It really wasn't too bad. Well, maybe it was. Four hours straight no breaks of that, let's just say the other foreign teachers here have laughed and then said sorry when I told them about my classes these last two weeks.
I have gone to a couple Christmas parties in the last week. Chinese parties are different than American parties. For example to party I went to with the people I do the English Book Study with-It had an agenda. It had performances. It had speakers and songs. It had chairs and desks set up in a square that we had to sit in. It was not a party. I don't know why they choose to call it such, but I think a new word needs to be created for it. It's just not right. And almost everything was in Chinese so I needed it translated. Granted it wasn't bad and it really recognized the reason for Christmas, but it wasn't a party as you and I know a party. This fact resulted in us being really nervous about singing Feliz Navidad when it came time for our performance, but it went ok and the mood lightened slightly, but only slightly. It was a poor performance by myself and two other Americans, the energy just wasn't there.
It happened again…a cooking disaster. I had the best of intentions to make Christmas cookies. I bought or gathered everything I needed, and I even have an oven now (a cross between a toaster oven and a conventional oven) to use. One thing I had to borrow was flour. My friend gave me "flour," only after adding three cups I decided the consistency wasn't right and what she thought was flour was actually baking soda. Thus, it resulted in a major failed attempt to make cookies. I am just glad I didn't try and bake them or eat them. Either way, it was eerily similar to the Thanksgiving sweet potato incident.
I have received several AMAZING (in the wow, this is hilarious sense of the word) Christmas gifts from students. Here is a small list…
-A Yao Ming Piggy Bank with Yao throwing up the victory (peace) sign-this is my favorite
-Apples, apples, and more apples
-A book about Confucius in Chinese
-A music box with dancing birds that says "My Best Friend" on it
-Wine and Chocolate
-A notebook
-An ethnic minority decoration
-A tea cup
-Over 15 cheesy Santa cards
-Another bottle of wine
I received a Christmas box from my mom. It's amazing (in the true sense of the word). It has wrapped presents in it, which are now under the tree in my friends apartment I will celebrate Christmas at. It had English toffee and Christmas cookies (good things since mine didn't quite work). It had a small fiber optic Christmas tree-they were all the rage 4 or 5 years ago, I still like them. A couple ornaments and just a whole lot of love. It made my month. It will be tough to be away for Christmas, I am really thankful for this box and the wonderful family that sent it.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
seeking understanding of God's kingdom
