Last Wednesday I was a judge at an English "journalism" competition. I suppose it was called this because the first round involved each of the contestants reciting a news article or report. This was about all it had to do with journalism.
The next round was for each of the contestants to do something with the judges. Prior to the competition I thought this meant that they would have some sort of conversation or something with us to demonstrate their English. However I was dragged up to dance by one of my students (which was outrageously awkward) and then asked some things in Chinese and apparently my responses were hilarious to the 200 or so people present. The whole thing was a little odd.
I attempted to make chicken in a barbecue-like sauce the other night but it ended up being the worst smelling thing I've managed to (externally) make in years. Saturday night, our friend Jenny came over and we had a big jiao zi (Chinese dumplings, they're sold as "pot stickers" in the U.S. often) making party. They were outrageously delicious and we have a bunch of frozen leftovers.
Class this past week went well, I broke up the period a bit more which helps their attention. I still definitely feel I do a much better job with the classes I teach later in the week after I've run through the plan a couple of times and adjusted it.
There's snow on the ground. There was a big dump of snow this past week. A huge number of the foreign students I live with have never seen snow so I ended up taking part in a ridiculously large snowball fight. The snow wasn't great for making the snowballs but it was still pretty cool and it was such a good snowfall to be the first for so many people. It was difficult to imagine seeing snow for the first time as an adult.
That brings me to Thanksgiving stuff I guess. There was a big "thanksgiving party" at English corner Wednesday night. This meant that one girl read something she found on the internet about thanksgiving. Then there were some people who performed dances to pop music while students flickered the lights to set the mood. There were some games as well but most people watched. None of the other foreign teachers made it so they wanted me to participate in absolutely everything. A human knot, a ridiculous-looking pop-the-balloon game, and again, dancing which was slightly less awkward than the above mentioned dancing incident. It was great fun but I'm not sure the idea of thanksgiving got through.
For Thursday we were all pretty busy so we went to a barbecue restaurant which, unbeknownst to us had obtained turkey as part of their meat selection for the night. It was pretty tasty turkey. I've heard of t-day turkeys for U.S. expats in China coming from local zoos--though that certainly could be rumor. The plan now is to take Saturday to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving meal to the extent possible.
There are occasional instances of utter political incorrectness out of people here. It's interesting because the students obviously have absolutely no idea that what they've said is considered somewhat offensive on the other side of the Pacific.
I head to HKG to see my Uncle Brian and Aunt Beth for Christmas, a fact I'm pretty excited about. When students hear we have been/do go to HKG they often say "they have very good shopping there" or "you can buy many good things there".
Also while looking at vacation possibilities I realized that Malaysian Borneo is within very affordable reach. My inner child went bonkers (or should I say "went ape!").
The next round was for each of the contestants to do something with the judges. Prior to the competition I thought this meant that they would have some sort of conversation or something with us to demonstrate their English. However I was dragged up to dance by one of my students (which was outrageously awkward) and then asked some things in Chinese and apparently my responses were hilarious to the 200 or so people present. The whole thing was a little odd.
I attempted to make chicken in a barbecue-like sauce the other night but it ended up being the worst smelling thing I've managed to (externally) make in years. Saturday night, our friend Jenny came over and we had a big jiao zi (Chinese dumplings, they're sold as "pot stickers" in the U.S. often) making party. They were outrageously delicious and we have a bunch of frozen leftovers.
Class this past week went well, I broke up the period a bit more which helps their attention. I still definitely feel I do a much better job with the classes I teach later in the week after I've run through the plan a couple of times and adjusted it.
There's snow on the ground. There was a big dump of snow this past week. A huge number of the foreign students I live with have never seen snow so I ended up taking part in a ridiculously large snowball fight. The snow wasn't great for making the snowballs but it was still pretty cool and it was such a good snowfall to be the first for so many people. It was difficult to imagine seeing snow for the first time as an adult.
That brings me to Thanksgiving stuff I guess. There was a big "thanksgiving party" at English corner Wednesday night. This meant that one girl read something she found on the internet about thanksgiving. Then there were some people who performed dances to pop music while students flickered the lights to set the mood. There were some games as well but most people watched. None of the other foreign teachers made it so they wanted me to participate in absolutely everything. A human knot, a ridiculous-looking pop-the-balloon game, and again, dancing which was slightly less awkward than the above mentioned dancing incident. It was great fun but I'm not sure the idea of thanksgiving got through.
For Thursday we were all pretty busy so we went to a barbecue restaurant which, unbeknownst to us had obtained turkey as part of their meat selection for the night. It was pretty tasty turkey. I've heard of t-day turkeys for U.S. expats in China coming from local zoos--though that certainly could be rumor. The plan now is to take Saturday to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving meal to the extent possible.
There are occasional instances of utter political incorrectness out of people here. It's interesting because the students obviously have absolutely no idea that what they've said is considered somewhat offensive on the other side of the Pacific.
I head to HKG to see my Uncle Brian and Aunt Beth for Christmas, a fact I'm pretty excited about. When students hear we have been/do go to HKG they often say "they have very good shopping there" or "you can buy many good things there".
Also while looking at vacation possibilities I realized that Malaysian Borneo is within very affordable reach. My inner child went bonkers (or should I say "went ape!").
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