BOO! Bwahahahaha!

This past week I did a Halloween lesson in my class, complete with Halloween tongue twisters for my speaking classes, the history of Halloween, candy, and a musical journal for my writing classes. In my 3 writing classes I told my students to close their eyes and listen to the music that was being played, the main theme song from the movie, "The Sixth Sense." Then, they had to make up a story according to what they heard! (I tried to load the music onto this blog but ahem...failed...so if you want to hear part of the music that I played, you can follow this link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Um-lFkXD8I&feature=related. It's pretty close to the actual version, minus a few screeching noises just to make sure my students weren't sleeping!)

Each week in my writing classes I have my students write a short journal at the end of the class. I realized that I have never posted an actual journal writing from one of my students so I decided to include one of the better ones here. Read on if you dare! :)

"In a dark-pitched night, the moon loomed behind the clouds, the silvery moonlight reflected a long lonely shadow of a middle-age man. He dragged his weary legs, trudging along the narrow alley with a depressed and painful look on his face. He stopped and leaned against a road lamp, it released a dim orange colored light. Suddenly the lamp 'bizz' and broken, left the night in a complete black. He sighed and walked foreward, his shadow followed him constantly. He had no intention to go home or anywhere there had a crowd. Alone was all he wanted. In the distance, a lush forest surrounded this old town, he quickened his steps to embrace the nature, where had a wild space to hide his secret and desperation."

This journal was written by Cinderella and I didn't change anything from her original writing. Pretty good, huh? Actually, some of the other students wrote stories that were more scary and suspenseful but I loved the description in Cinderella's writing.

Hope you had a great Halloween!

Dorm Days

I recently went to visit some of my freshmen students in their dorm and I wanted to give you a feel for what dorm-life is like at my school. When freshmen arrive they are assigned to a building where they have 8 students (chosen by the school - no choosing your roommates here!) per room. After their freshmen year they move to another building where they have 6 students (again, chosen by the school) per room and this is where they stay for the next 3 years of college. I have heard of some students changing rooms but it is not too common. Especially if you compare that to the frequency of dorm moves at colleges in the U.S. - "What? You're not happy, content, social, and confident in your room? Well, we would LOVE to help you find another room where you can thrive!!" Okay, so maybe that's just at Central College...hahaha. The students at my Chinese university stay put for the most part. I should also mention that the student's roommates are also their classmates. (In this school, as freshmen the students are grouped into classes of 25, according to their major, and they have almost every class with those same 25 students throughout their entire college career...and, by the way, the classes are also chosen by the school...)

Pictured below is a typical freshmen dorm. You can see the 8 bunk-bed style beds and the small desk at the far end of the beds. Along with the bed and desk, the students get a small locker-sized cupboard and a stool (shown below). When they move into their dorm room they bring 1 or 2 suitcases with them which provides what they need for the year!


The picture below is of some senior students in their dorm-room. As you can maybe see, they all have lofted beds with desks below them and a small cupboard next to the desk. They have a lot more storage space than the freshmen.


I suppose that an advantage to this style of living while in college is that most roommates really form a family during their years in college, similar to many roommates in the U.S! Even though they want more space at times I always tell them to appreciate each other while they are so close - there's nothing better than living with your best friends!! :)

Chinese-American Wedding

On Saturday two of my Tianjin friends 'tied the knot!' (So funny, I look at that idiom in a whole new light now that I've taught it and "head over heels" to my students...) I digress, back to the topic! Kristi and Zhou Jun celebrated their marriage this past weekend and I wanted to post some pictures and stories from that day!

First of all, the bachelorette party! We threw a typical bachelorette party for Kristi...got her all dressed up and made her walk around the city, played games, ate cake, etc. The funny part was that in China they do not have bachelorette parties so to see Kristi walking around (as pictured below) was quite the shock for people who were already shocked enough to see a bunch of foreigners out on a stroll... My friend, Cindy, had to make the comment that, "actually, I think Shannon is getting more attention than Kristi!" Oh, being the blondest blonde of the group is not always advantageous.


Before the ceremony, as with all weddings, there was much to be done! Doing those things in China, however, is not always the easiest. Take, for example, the afternoon that my friend, Natalie, and I spent almost 3 hours at a HUGE fabric market searching for matching ribbon to wrap the bouquets and tie the programs. I bet you've never spent 10 minutes bargaining for some red ribbon, have you!?! :)

I helped out the day before the wedding with the decorations and also made some adjustments a few hours before the wedding. We had candles everywhere and it was very pretty as the evening settled in. The wedding was held in a building that was described as a "glass jelly roll." Picture it...the description is dead-on! Here's the head table...


The Christian ceremony was held outdoors and even though it was quite polluted, it was still a warm day with no rain! (You'd never be able to guess that from the sky pictured below, huh?) Since it was a Chinese-American wedding they did the entire ceremony in English and then translated into Chinese (or vice-versa...) There were many American traditions, like Western food, bridesmaids/groomsmen, first dance, father/daughter dance, cake cutting and guest book but there were also Chinese traditions dispersed throughout the day which made it very special for everyone involved! For example, they had a Chinese "MC" whose purpose was to crack jokes and keep the mood light and they also did a traditional tea ceremony. In Chinese culture there is such a big emphasis placed on honoring the parents of the bride and groom. The purpose of the tea ceremony is for the parents to accept their child's spouse into their family and take them as their own child. So, at this part of the ceremony, Kristi offered tea to Zhou Jun's parents and they drank it then made some comments to Kristi and offered her a "hong bao" - a red envelope. (At Chinese weddings people do not usually bring gifts but instead they bring a hong bao with money inside for the newly married couple.) Then, Zhou Jun did the same, offering tea to Kristi's parents.



At the end of the evening Zhou Jun and Kristi changed into their traditional Chinese dress and went from table to table making toasts to everyone - this is also a Chinese wedding tradition.


It was so interesting to see how Kristi and Zhou Jun incorporated both of their cultures into the wedding ceremony - I think it's so cool to see that appreciation for each other's traditions! During their vows they had a line that went something like, "I promise to take your people as my own..." Wow! Congratulations Kristi and ZJ, I'm so happy for you!!

I Spy...

...with my little eye...

A roller coaster just one block away! Anyone see it? What about the tall building to the left of the roller coaster? And I don't mean the really obvious one...I mean the other tall building! See it?

I took this picture out of my taxi window at about 11:30 this morning. It's NOT fog...

A Week of Fables, Movie Sets, and "Burning Leaves"

This week has by far been the craziest one since I've arrived back in Tianjin. I haven't had a moment of "down-time" and the laundry and dish piles are beginning to creep across the room... Here are just a few of the things that have been going on.

Fables
I spent two evenings this week doing a voice recording for an Aesop's Fables workbook for a Chinese kindergarten class. Basically I sit in a recording room, read English for two hours and they pay me a lot of money! Pretty sweet deal. :) This recording was especially fun because I got to read as if I were having story-time with a bunch of little kids - all animated and with different voices. I also got to read a bunch of cute rhymes like "Eensy Weensy Spider" and many more that called for animal sounds. It was actually fun! Apparently they like my voice so they've asked me to come back next week for a different recording.

Movie Sets
This week on my campus they've been filming a Chinese movie so there have been actors, lights, cameras, and sets all over the place. I got some pictures one day as I was going past and almost jumped for joy when they didn't ask me to do anything in the movie! Usually when I walk past things like this I am immediately asked to be in pictures or scenes...not my cup of tea...

One of the sets

An actress taking a break from a scene

"Burning Leaves"
Some of my friends would call me an optimist so I shouldn't be surprised when they laughed at me for saying that the strange smell outside was burning leaves. Oh yeah, they don't burn leaves in Tianjn... In fact, lately the pollution has been so thick that it stinks. The beginning of the week started out great (see picture of blue sky below) but by the end of the week a thick cloud of pollution had descended upon the city making it difficult to see skyscrapers even 1 or 2 blocks away. I'll try to get a good picture sometime today so that you can see what I am talking about!


The rest of the week was filled with lesson planning, grading, lunches with students, some editing and wedding decorating. Two of my friends are getting married today so I will post again soon with pictures from that event! Okay...I'm out of here...what to wear to the wedding?!?!

Warning! PG-13 Material Included Below!

When I was in college my friend, Amy, would commonly ask us during dinner what our "Chutes and Ladders" were for the day. This just meant that we were supposed to tell the worst part of our day and then the highlight of our day. I was thinking about this in light of the week-long holiday we just had and so I asked my classes this week what their "Chutes and Ladders" were from the holiday. I am teaching some very eager, very excited freshmen this semester which is a lot of fun but in one of my classes, I got quite the shock! Apparently, the word "chute" is not an easy one for Chinese students to pronounce. As I called on one student to answer the question, she tried desperately to voice her thoughts and to say them correctly. Many times students will stutter and repeat words over and over again until they have their bearings. This is what came out...

"My ladder from the holiday was going home and talking to my best friends from high school. We chatted about our college life. My Sh*$, hmm...my sh*@, uh...my sh#%, my sh*! from the holiday was..."

I have no clue how she finished, I was just trying so hard to not bust a gut right there in front of the class! She would have had no clue what I was even laughing about!! :) Oh, my job is so funny sometimes...

Too Good to be Left Out

Today a new student by the name of BAMBOO walked into my class. I just couldn't leave her off the list...