It's quarter to 6 am and I'm sitting out on my balcony so as not to disturb my roommate, who is still sleeping. This may be the only time in my routine I have for blogging. The pictures above are from my balcony. I'll take more pictures today.
Yesterday at this time, it was raining a warm summer rain. I went to class with my funky plaid rain hat and tsinelas (flip-flops). In the entire country, no one wears thinner, cheaper looking tsinelas that I do. Anyway, buy the time I got to class my shoulders and bag were wet, so I decided later it would be time to crack open the ol' umbrella. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
So class was better yesterday, I was more prepared, and it was less of a shock. However, in my second hour class, I noticed the sky was turning black. Black as night. I interrupted the Freight Train of Grammar to say, "Excuse me, the weather is very strange." We all took a second to look at the dark sky, and then the Freight Train of Grammar resumed. Then the sky turned to white, white fog, and visibility became zero. We literally could not see anything out the window. Pretty soon after that, we heard fat rain drops against the window, and the other students asked how to say "hail." I offered "ice rain," but it wasn't. It was just fat drops of rain smacking against the glass.
Our newspaper reading class later on was all about Starbucks. For some reason, my last year's summer class and this year's share the same themes: Chinese food verses Western food (whatever that is), and Starbucks. When Freight Train of Reading Comprehension asked me my opinion of Starbucks next to the Imperial Palace inside the Forbidden City, I said, why did the Palace people invite Starbucks to be there? Starbucks is just doing what it does; some Palace person decided it was a good idea. It's the Palace person's fault that Starbucks is there.
Whatever, after that I went to the school cantina and had another delicious lunch with chicken, garlic scallions, and cucumbers. I rehearsed my reading, made pronunciation notes int he text, and went to my one-on-one. I would be annoyed if one of my students made pronunciation notes, but Chinese is different. If you don't know a character, there is no sounding it out, you know it or you don't. So I went to the one-on-one with my text all marked up, and flew through the reading, so much so that the teacher was about to let me out when we were finished, but then realized we still had 10 minutes left. She asked me if I had any advice for their teaching, and I lied and said that I didn't. That question is a trap! I told her my teaching is different, but that teaching method is cultural, and you can't teach Chinese with American teaching methods. She thought that was a good answer.
Of course you can teach Chinese with American methodology... I'm just not sure if you should. I have to think about the literacy issue. For one thing, teaching reading (and writing) is not necessarily part of the language instinct. Another thing; I don't really know if I'm teaching Spanish language literacy or if I'm just trying to get my students to apply their English reading skills to Spanish. I do know one thing: I'm learning how to read Chinese here, I'm probably at a 2nd grade level.
Anyway, after the one-on-one, I went to find two other students and we all went to Starbucks on the West Lake. It wasn't as quiet as we had discussed in class, but God Bless America it was just as expensive as in Seattle, if not more. I ordered a San Pelligrino and studied until my stomach started eating itself. I told the other students I'd be back, and went to go find something to eat.
Here's the thing: I can't read. I can't hold a menu in my hand and make an intelligent choice, or stand at a counter and pick out something I want from a menu on the wall. I have to either be a pain in the neck and negotiate the menu with my server, or I have to have a picture menu to point at. And when diabetes says eat, I eat. So yes, my friends, I ended up at McDonalds. Diabetes heaven. I pointed to an overpriced fried chicken sandwich, which was spicy and delicious, and ate medium fries and a real Coke. I walked out of there thinking, dammit, I should have just allowed my liver to panic and flood me with emergency blood sugar, because I just gave myself a blood sugar fiesta and tomorrow my stomach will hurt.
So I tried to walk off the extra blood sugar by going to Carrefour for the third time. I ran into some other students, and managed to ask for and buy myself a chair cushion, so I can study in my room with out my butt falling off. Went back to Starbucks, studied some more, and then when we couldn't find where the 12 Bus stops to take us back, we got into a cab. I have finally memorized what to tell the cab driver about how to get back to campus.
Came back to the dorm, studied some more. As I was about to go to sleep, I realized my cell phone was missing. Where is it? At Starbucks? Did it fall out of my pocket in the cab? Did A get a receipt from the cab driver? My roommate was much more concerned than I was, I had to hint to him several times that it was not worth losing sleep about. I will either find it today or have to buy a new one. I'm not worried, because it was my phone with a pre-paid sim card; I can just replace it. It's a bummer, though.
So yesterday, the rain cooled off the town.... or did the cooling off bring rain? Anyway, it wasn't deathly hot yesterday, and today it's blue skies and comfortable temperatures.
This weekend I'm going into Shanghai to meet the people at Praxis Language. I don't know how to buy a train ticket or find a hotel room, so that should be an adventure.
Yesterday at this time, it was raining a warm summer rain. I went to class with my funky plaid rain hat and tsinelas (flip-flops). In the entire country, no one wears thinner, cheaper looking tsinelas that I do. Anyway, buy the time I got to class my shoulders and bag were wet, so I decided later it would be time to crack open the ol' umbrella. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
So class was better yesterday, I was more prepared, and it was less of a shock. However, in my second hour class, I noticed the sky was turning black. Black as night. I interrupted the Freight Train of Grammar to say, "Excuse me, the weather is very strange." We all took a second to look at the dark sky, and then the Freight Train of Grammar resumed. Then the sky turned to white, white fog, and visibility became zero. We literally could not see anything out the window. Pretty soon after that, we heard fat rain drops against the window, and the other students asked how to say "hail." I offered "ice rain," but it wasn't. It was just fat drops of rain smacking against the glass.
Our newspaper reading class later on was all about Starbucks. For some reason, my last year's summer class and this year's share the same themes: Chinese food verses Western food (whatever that is), and Starbucks. When Freight Train of Reading Comprehension asked me my opinion of Starbucks next to the Imperial Palace inside the Forbidden City, I said, why did the Palace people invite Starbucks to be there? Starbucks is just doing what it does; some Palace person decided it was a good idea. It's the Palace person's fault that Starbucks is there.
Whatever, after that I went to the school cantina and had another delicious lunch with chicken, garlic scallions, and cucumbers. I rehearsed my reading, made pronunciation notes int he text, and went to my one-on-one. I would be annoyed if one of my students made pronunciation notes, but Chinese is different. If you don't know a character, there is no sounding it out, you know it or you don't. So I went to the one-on-one with my text all marked up, and flew through the reading, so much so that the teacher was about to let me out when we were finished, but then realized we still had 10 minutes left. She asked me if I had any advice for their teaching, and I lied and said that I didn't. That question is a trap! I told her my teaching is different, but that teaching method is cultural, and you can't teach Chinese with American teaching methods. She thought that was a good answer.
Of course you can teach Chinese with American methodology... I'm just not sure if you should. I have to think about the literacy issue. For one thing, teaching reading (and writing) is not necessarily part of the language instinct. Another thing; I don't really know if I'm teaching Spanish language literacy or if I'm just trying to get my students to apply their English reading skills to Spanish. I do know one thing: I'm learning how to read Chinese here, I'm probably at a 2nd grade level.
Anyway, after the one-on-one, I went to find two other students and we all went to Starbucks on the West Lake. It wasn't as quiet as we had discussed in class, but God Bless America it was just as expensive as in Seattle, if not more. I ordered a San Pelligrino and studied until my stomach started eating itself. I told the other students I'd be back, and went to go find something to eat.
Here's the thing: I can't read. I can't hold a menu in my hand and make an intelligent choice, or stand at a counter and pick out something I want from a menu on the wall. I have to either be a pain in the neck and negotiate the menu with my server, or I have to have a picture menu to point at. And when diabetes says eat, I eat. So yes, my friends, I ended up at McDonalds. Diabetes heaven. I pointed to an overpriced fried chicken sandwich, which was spicy and delicious, and ate medium fries and a real Coke. I walked out of there thinking, dammit, I should have just allowed my liver to panic and flood me with emergency blood sugar, because I just gave myself a blood sugar fiesta and tomorrow my stomach will hurt.
So I tried to walk off the extra blood sugar by going to Carrefour for the third time. I ran into some other students, and managed to ask for and buy myself a chair cushion, so I can study in my room with out my butt falling off. Went back to Starbucks, studied some more, and then when we couldn't find where the 12 Bus stops to take us back, we got into a cab. I have finally memorized what to tell the cab driver about how to get back to campus.
Came back to the dorm, studied some more. As I was about to go to sleep, I realized my cell phone was missing. Where is it? At Starbucks? Did it fall out of my pocket in the cab? Did A get a receipt from the cab driver? My roommate was much more concerned than I was, I had to hint to him several times that it was not worth losing sleep about. I will either find it today or have to buy a new one. I'm not worried, because it was my phone with a pre-paid sim card; I can just replace it. It's a bummer, though.
So yesterday, the rain cooled off the town.... or did the cooling off bring rain? Anyway, it wasn't deathly hot yesterday, and today it's blue skies and comfortable temperatures.
This weekend I'm going into Shanghai to meet the people at Praxis Language. I don't know how to buy a train ticket or find a hotel room, so that should be an adventure.
____
Oh! the umbrella story! I have a tiny travel umbrella, that I used once last summer, but haven't used it since. When I opened it yesterday, the handle was shorter than I remember, less than a foot. Lame! I asked some other Americans if they wanted my crazy short handle umbrella, and then suddenly my umbrella telescoped out to normal size. So I took off my hat and started walking, which made the others laugh. I don't know how to work my own umbrella.
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