All throughout the past 2 weeks Nick and I have been teaching 90-minute English classes to many willing volunteer students. Nick has done body parts and family with his lower-level students and I have done job interview skills and health with my more advanced class. We love the students, and both of have had very successful lessons, as well as lessons where the constructive comments will help us successfully navigate the jobs in the Fall. We work hard to do things like speak slowly and explain activities such that they can be navigated. We work to talk about things that matter to us, and to engage the students as human beings as much as we can. The students are great because as I'm teaching, we both know that these are not only activities to practice English, but also life lessons in cultural integration and understanding. The levels of this job are many and complex.
I'll try to be brief and mention everything I think you'd like, in order from most recent to least recent, following blog structure:
Saturday, August 4th:
Today we went on a field trip with the other 61 trainees who came to China with us at the beginning of July. The country director and most of the staff accompanied us as well: we all hiked (or were chair-lifted) up Qing Cheng Shan, a mountain (alt = 1260 m) that is said to be the birthplace of Taoism. It was very beautiful: misty, steep, treacherous, and cool.
After two hours of hiking various terrains such as wide flat stairs up ridges and short slick stairs up ravines, we made it to the top, where there sits a huge temple and shrine. When one of classmates first saw it, he said "Oh, look, the Golden Calf." It wasn't really, but it was a 3-story golden bull ridden by the Tao (I believe ..). Sometimes after reading about the high places during Moses' life, I don't think much of them. Of course I wouldn't have worshipped an object as close to the heavens as I could build it. Well, I rethought those sentiments looking out over the mountains of Western China, and I think I realized why anyone would be inspired to do it. You literally feel like nothing is between you and the vastness of the sky. Certainly the gods can see you there, and see what you do - maybe you could take the most beautiful objects you can think of and build a tribute. Certainly you would be looked upon favorably. In this case I'll refer to the transfiguration, where Jesus told Peter to refrain from building three tabernacles for each of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah - that maybe you can't build a place to meet God, but rather you meet him in His Creation.Anyway, it was a great trip, fully subsidized by Peace Corps. Thanks to all the staff who set it up. Also, on the way up I had a good talk with my Chinese teacher about how people get jobs in China (largely still the "I know a guy" system), and her background trying to learn the differences between British pronunciation & culture, and American pronunciation & culture. Just as it's hard for us right now to see the differences between locations in China, it's hard for the students to understand the differences between the English-speaking countries.
Tonight six of us volunteers went downtown to check out a Western bar. We ended up having a few drinks and literally dancing the night away -- so after a beautiful hike and a great night out, I'm ready to get back to class. Hopefully I can figure out the speaker situation for my music lesson tomorrow .. wish me luck.
Around Wednesday, August 1st:
Today our seminar between English teaching and Chinese learning was an overview of the political setup of China and the historical background of their present system. The guy who gave it did a great job. I feel like I could explain the Chinese vision and fears between the World Wars, and their adoption of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, as well as the subsequent reforms and economic advancement. Right now land and other reforms have helped the people to become very positive about their futures. We discussed a few differences between the very general setups of the U.S. Government and the PRC Government, mostly between shared power and centralized power. I think that I will be able to understand my students when the mention words like 'democracy,' which means something different here. I do no know much about 'pure' democracy, but I cannot argue for either our usage or theirs at this point. For further reading, you should check out the PRC Constitution, adopted December 4th, 1982. As far as I know, it cannot be amended.
Tonight we had a great seminar on how to paint the characters that make up the translation of "Peace Corps." See the picture page for my own masterpiece.
Sunday, July 29th:
Today we went into town and saw our host family's other house, their holiday house. There are two lengthy breaks in the university schedule: Spring Festival, which runs early January through late February, and summer break, which runs mid-July through sometime in September. So who would want to spend them on a barely-open university? Only Peace Corps Trainees. Anyway, the house is beautiful; a sixth-story condo with a great rooftop garden, terrace, and sunroom. We learned to play Sichuan rules mahjongg ("Májiàng") in the sunroom, then had a nice lunch out, followed by a nap, then back home to Chengdu U. Naptime in China is something like it is in Spain, though it's demise is less imminent. For centuries things have been quiet after lunch for rest time; within the last decade in an effort to increase efficiency, naptime was officially declared "over." Needless to say, it didn't work and it was so foreign to this culture that it was eventually reinstated.Tonight we decided it was time for a haircut. We walked to one of the 10 salon-type places right outside of the university, and rolled the dice. Nick came out with two hairwashes and a decent cut, completely sculpted with the thinning shears. I came out with what I thought was an Edward Scissorhands thinning job that left me with only a few long wisps of hair, but in the past week I have come to realize that I actually have a hairstyle now, and it's easier to take care of. Not too thin. So, I'm glad that was a success. Otherwise you'd start seeing more pictures of me with short hair ...
Saturday, July 28th:
Today we walked up the Luo Dai Great Wall, or the "Little" Great Wall, which is a big replica of the real Great Wall. We thought it would be something small you take a picture in front of and then leave. We were very wrong, however. You climb a very large wall up the ridges of a small mountain (maybe 800 or 1000 meters high) to the top, where you have tea at the temple. Then you walk back down through a peaceful forest, which takes half the time it did to walk up the stairs and inclines. The hardest part for me was when I didn't think the family chihuahua would really make it up the mountain, but she did. She rode back down on a car with our host sister, temporarily out of commission due to an ankle sprain. The pictures of the wall on the picture website are pretty cool.
Our friends Matt and Melissa Hamilton, who I used to work with, had a baby boy a few weeks ago: here are a few pictures.
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