Sports Meeting

The past 3 days have been filled by a grand "sports meeting". More details will follow shortly, but now I am off to celebrate the week-long holiday in Huangshan. I will fill you in on the details shortly...

- Jon

Hello, teacher!

On my way to class everyday I pass through the elementary school and middle school halls. Inevitably, there will be hundreds of little blue and red shirted demons running around the halls screaming and generally behaving like the world is about to end. It's a pretty amusing scene in and of itself, but what really completes the picture is every third or fourth kid will stare up at me with eyes filled with wonderment. (If you thought they'd get used to foreign teachers at the Suzhou Foreign Language School, then you'd be wrong. Foreigners never get old...) The children will stare up at me and then yell "Hello, teacher!" and run off screaming and chasing their ball/other children around the halls. It never fails to get a smile out of me...

- Jon
P.S. Here are a couple completely unrelated pictures of some of my favorite people - the Smartwhores...

Post-victory posing!

I like to think that we're discussing popping and locking in this picture...

- Jon

"This morning I woke up feeling brand new..."

It's been awhile since I last updated the blog, but never fear - all is well in the People's Republic. I've been listening to "Get By" by Talib Kweli on repeat for 2 days now (thanks goes out to Ross for pushing this over the Great Firewall for me) and I've also spent a fair amount of time watching a video that Tao posted of Julian teaching us how to pop and lock at a frisbee tournament. It's well worth checking out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMqRGJGaIyE

Besides wasting time, I've also done a fair amount of work recently (classes are ramping up a little) and officially kicked off Shanghai Fall Ultimate Frisbee League! My days are pretty packed right now, but I actually think it's a good thing. This lack of "free time" is a sign that I'm adjusting to life in China and I'm back to taking care of business. When I first arrived, I felt like I had a lot of time to kill. I would wander around the city, watch DVDs, etc... Now, I've got more things to do than I actually have time for. I have basketball to play with Chinese teachers, lessons to work on my Mandarin, a newly formed "date night" which I'm excited about, a nightly Scrubs episode, etc...

In other news, we actually have our first vacation coming up shortly! We're going to be joining the throngs of traveling/vacationing Chinese at Huangshan (Yellow Mountain). Emma and Ryan have done a great job organizing everything and we're all set to leave on our first non-Suzhou, non-Shanghai adventure on Monday morning. I'm really looking forward to it! It's going to be great to hike around and check out some Chinese scenery :)

I just got some pictures from Milan from my birthday in Shanghai. There are too many to post, but here is a sequence of me being fed the long noodle and egg (in traditional birthday fashion):

Waitress feeding me the noodle

I will eat your children!

Chewing... (the waitress enjoyed this waaaaay too much)

Friends laughing and enjoying the show!

- Jon

Visual Perspective

Seeing as Jon and I have been here over a month now, I thought it was time to show you a bit of where we live. Here is my room...as you'll see, it resembles a hotel room...except, perhaps, for the bizarre space-ship-esque shower:


Here are my students doing their twice-a-day eye exercises:

And here we are at the Monday flag raising:

Finally, here is my Chinese assistant teacher Ms. Huang, and a new pic of moi:













And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll end here.
Zaijian!
- Em

Ultimate Art

I was recently asked to design the Shanghai jerseys for this fall's League season, which was pretty awesome (a little stressful because it was last-minute, but a wonderful excuse to get drawing again). I posted all the sketches that were both liked-but-rejected and liked-and-accepted on my other blog that I use mostly for posting my artwork: emmasmaldino.blogspot.com.
So you should check it out and let me know what you think...comments on this blog or the other one work just fine.

Thanks!
- Em

Wu Guai the Survivor!

The mid-Autumn festival passed recently here in China and the only reason I mention this is that we got Monday off because of it. Thank you random Chinese holidays! Speaking of random, so today my advisor told me about the "Sporting Event Days" that will be held next week. Apparently, we are going to take two full days out of class and take all 2000+ students outside to run track and field events. This sounds pretty hilarious to me, but then it gets better. Teachers are encouraged to participate in the events as well. Now, I love sports as much as the next guy, but running the 400m with a bunch of Chinese middle schoolers isn't my idea of a pleasant Friday afternoon. So, I tried to respectful decline this invitation to participate and offered to time the events instead. This would be all well and good if I were a Chinese teacher, but I'm a foreign teacher and we MUST participate. Apparently, the kids enjoy nothing more than watching foreign teachers run around like idiots (this comes as no surprise to me). I signed up for the long jump and the shotput - I think Emma was also coerced into running the 100m or something like that. Details will follow (and hopefully pictures of this nonsense).

I've been talking about getting pet turtles for a couple of weeks. Emma mentioned it in her class and one of her students gave her a pair of turtles for us to have!

Here the turtles are in their natural environment. They are hiding in their shells because I snapped the first couple of pictures with flash and sufficiently frightened them. In any case, we got these turtles and I was overjoyed. I've been taking them out for romps in the grass and talking to them when I'm bored of grading papers. They've been solid pets. Unfortunately, this past weekend when Emma and I went to Shanghai we forgot to leave our keys with a friend in Suzhou. The turtles were on their own all weekend! I was really worried that they wouldn't make it through... Luckily, our turtles are of a hardy nature and a strong constitution and 3 days without food barely phased them. In honor of their fortitude, I have decided to name the male turtle "Wu Guai the Survivor." Wu guai (pronounced ooooo-gway) means turtle in Chinese and it's actually my favorite word to say. I'm still trying to think up a fitting moniker for Wu Guai's partner...

Here is a picture of Wu Guai the Survivor:


- Jon

Teachers’ Day

Well, holy moly! They really love teachers here in China! Today was National Teachers’ Day, which was pretty much ridiculous, and absurd, and totally awesome all around. When I arrived at school this morning…i.e., when I walked the 100 yards from my dorm to my classroom, there was an envelope on my desk. It was from one of my students, Awa (that’s her English name, but I assure you, I have never met anyone by the name of Awa before). It was a simple but lovely card, along with a gift certificate to redeem moon cakes from some store (all in Chinese…my assistant will need to fill the blanks on this one). Moon cakes are the treat for this time of year…potentially for every special holiday during the year, but particularly for today and for the mid-autumn festival, which is this weekend (along with Jon’s birthday….special celebrations on all fronts).

Anyway, I was touched, but that was just the beginning. Then I got another card plus a cute handmade Korean figurine from a Korean student of mine. Her card said that she would “try to do better from now on,” which sort of insinuates that she hasn’t been doing well or she hasn’t been trying hard enough, but she’s an amazing student. So I’m left to assume that she just means that she’ll continue to try harder and harder because she’s awesome like that.
Next up, all of the teachers had a two-hour long assembly (don’t worry, I’m sure someone was watching the kids…). At first, it consisted mostly of speeches in Chinese, which sounded like blah-blah-blah as I drifted into a post-lunch desire to nap. However, into the second hour, the pace picked up and the shenanigans began. There were bizarre performances with cheerleader-esque “teachers” shaking the bon-bons and pom-poms to Ricky Martin, with high schoolers in red and silver get-ups doing a dance with bamboo noise-maker thingies, and many more. There were prizes given out gameshow-style, with a number being pulled out of a box, announced to the audience, and a (usually) Chinese teacher would run screaming down the stairs in glee to claim his or her prize. I won nothing…such was my luck. But I did get a pretty hideous silk scarf (though soft), and a couple of moon cakes. Hooray!!!!! I got my fill of laughs and entertainment though. Good job Suzhou Foreign Language School! You really know how to throw a party!

By the end of the day, I had a huge bouquet of about 2 dozen red roses (that I’ve left on my desk) and a simply massive bouquet of lilies (note photo) given to me by one of my student’s (Arrthur) dads…the same dad who recently took me, Jon, Arthur’s teacher from last year, my Chinese co-teacher, the Chinese math teacher and his daughter, a second-grade Chinese assistant, and his wife to a traditional Chinese dinner, filled with dish after dish after delicious dish. Now, my entire room…and Jon’s room (since I had to move it there)…smells like lilies. Can’t complain there. ☺


All in all, it has been a highly entertaining day.

Laterz,
Em

Who's house? Run's House!

I feel like I'm starting to hit a groove here. My days are pretty packed, but they're fun. I have lots of little activities that are keeping me laidback. On Mondays I go to Shanghai for some frisbee, Tuesday and Wednesday there's basketball, Thursday is soccer, and then back to Shanghai on the weekend for partying and frisbee. I've also started raiding the local industrial complex for dumplings. They make the most delicious zhurou jiaozi (pork dumplings) and they're 3 kuai a tray (50 cents)!!! I've also recently learned how to navigate the Chinese mail system - or at least I hope so. Let me know if the mail arrives...

Hmmm, what else is new. Well, I had a really good day of classes today. My English class (which is usually painfully shy) was very energetic and participatory today. I was being a bit of a goofball and I think that helped loosen them up. I've decided to expose them to a little American culture at the end of each class too. (Side note: last night I watched Dogma and there's a scene where Matt Damon is leaving a bus singing Run's House by Run D.M.C. to himself.) This movie watching inspired my first introduction to American Culture - me dancing around singing "Who's house? Run's house. Say what? Who's house? Run's House." Entertainment at its finest...

My Chinese is improving, but the progress is painfully slow. I spend almost my entire day speaking and interacting in English (ironic, considering I live in China), so any improvement is a result of my studying and then the few hours of experimentation outside of school. And by experimentation I mean eating. I'm getting to be quite good at talking to waiters and getting food that I like. Valuable skill here on the mainland...

Here is a picture in memory of all of you H1's and Crunkfesters out there:


- Jon

Shanghai Shindig

This weekend was another fun frisbee weekend in Shanghai, but this time there was a little twist... After 3 glorious hours of frisbee in the park there was a surprise birthday gathering (with Emma and Milan organizing)! A bunch of frisbee players met up at Milan's place for some bowling (there is a bowling alley in the basement of his building!) and then we all went out to a dongbeiren restaurant. Dongbeiren just means northeastern person, but basically it's code for "house of delicious dumplings." The food was amazing and it was nice to hang out with the frisbee gang off the field. A real interesting group! The highlight of the meal for me was the bizarre noodle and egg eating birthday ritual. At the end of the meal, the waitress came in and fed me a reallllly long noodle (which I had to eat without breaking) and then she stuffed a whole hardboiled egg in my mouth. I'm sure there were some amusing pictures taken (which I will try to procure and post later...) Post-noodle/egg consumption we all headed off to a local bar where we ate tiramisu and drank some mojitos. (Side note: there isn't too much that I've missed about the United States over these past few months, but I would have killed for a good mojito. Luckily, now I don't have to... All I have to do is head back to Shanghai!) All in all, a group of wonderful new friends made this weekend a memorable birthday surprise :)

- Jon

Poking her head out of her shell...

Ok. Enough is enough. I've taken a little hiatus, during which Jon has so graciously (and enthusiastically) taken over the blog-writing duties, but I'll come out of my little cocoon…at least for a few brief narrative moments.

We've almost completed our first week of school, and I have to say that I'm pretty wiped. And I mean every day around 2pm I have the strong but hopefully well-masked desire to conk out hardcore. Maybe it's the heat. Maybe it's that I need to be "on" whenever I'm with the wee little 4th graders. But my energy is shooting out as if it's attracted to all other people, things and activities….except its home, its vessel….me. A quick nap or lolly-gagging around for a bit, along with doing something fun, usually does the trick. But this whole process usually means that my brain power is drained (or I convince myself that it is) so much that it ends up being quite difficult to make myself redirect and focus on learning and practicing my Chinese flashcards. I think I need to start studying with the course-books and whatnot that we have because I am my own worst, and least strict, teacher. Don't worry…with the 4th graders, it's a whole new ballgame. Long story short: I'm on a mission to give myself a forceful and strong yet also gentle kick in the ass so that I can fully live up the opportunities that are smack in front of my face.

In other news, I got my Foreign Experts Certificate today and I my visa will soon be changed from single- to a multi-entry, which means that I will most definitely be cruising over to Hong Kong come October for a sweet tournament. However, since Jon is the world traveler that he is, he had no more pages left in his passport….thus, the local police couldn't put the new visa inside. Eek! No worries. His mission tomorrow entails missing work (bonus!) to go to US Embassy in Shanghai and get new pages. No biggy. Silly boy gets to miss work (eh, at least I don't have to teach until 10am…boss!).

Out and over…off to watch some Scrubs with Jon and our new friend Ryan (who might just love the show as much as we do).

Adios!
Emma

AYCE = Life

One of my first goals upon reaching my new home in Suzhou was to identify a couple of AYCE (all-you-can-eat) joints in town. You know - AYCE is right in there after learning Chinese and playing frisbee on my to-do list... I figure it's all part of exploring the city too! Anyways, this past weekend, Emma and I went out with some of the other foreign teachers and a couple of our Chinese friends to a pretty sweet AYCE sushi place and followed it up with a brief bar tour in downtown Suzhou. After a good long feast I felt like I had finally balanced my chi here in Suzhou and can consider it home :) Here are a couple of pictures from that night:

Jon and Frank (Chinese business teacher and translator extraordinare)

Jon (note the shirt - H1 Love!) and Emma

In other news, I've started playing basketball with some of the Chinese teachers at school. It's soooo much fun! I feel like Shaq. I grab tons of rebounds and own the paint. Unfortunately, I shoot like Shaq and can't even come close to dunking... Dribbling is another skill that could use some work. In any case, I've been having a blast playing with them and hope to make a habit out of it (and hopefully some new friends!)

- Jon

First Day of School!

Last night as I was putting the final touches on my lesson plans I had some definite pangs of "I don't want to work..." The end of vacation is always tough for me. I realize that the last three months of blissful exploring, frisbee, and genuine laziness are going to vanish before my eyes only to be replaced by a seemingly endless cycle of lesson planning and teaching. Its never a pretty picture. But I've realized that the outlook only bleak when I compare work to vacation. Now that I've got the first day under my belt and I'm in the work mindset things seem much brighter.

I'm teaching 4 classes here. I teach 12th grade math, science, and IT (all to the same 30 kids) and I teach English to 7th graders. I'm a little intimidated by my schedule because I'm teaching so many different subjects, but at the same time I think it's a pretty cool set up. I don't consider myself an expert on some of my subjects (note: I hated english class all through high school and continual to have residual hatred of the subject in general.) This will push me to learn more about each subject so I can serve as a better resource for my kids.

Anyways, let me tell you a little about the first day (which was mostly a blur). My PGA3 class (the seniors) are all mainland Chinese and seem like real good kids. Their understanding of written English is quite good, but they are intimidated by oral communication (understandably so.) Attempting to break down this oral language barrier is going to be one of my goals for this year. My EPP class (7th grade English) is full of Overseas kids from Taiwan and South Korea. They are INCREDIBLY shy and afraid to speak in class. It's going to be hard to draw them out of their shells, but I'm going to do my best...

In other news, this evening I arrived at frisbee and started warming up when a familiar form started walking towards me. As he got closer I recognized him as Michael Burrows - one of my friends from high school! I couldn't believe it! What are the chances that we'd meet up (for the first time since I graduated high school) at a pickup frisbee game in Shanghai! It turns out that he's been in China for 8 months already and plans to stay for almost 2 more years. People are just coming out of the woodwork it seems. It was great to catch up with an old high school friend!

- Jon