From - Lorinda Jones to Rachel: I haven't heard from you for a while. Are you okay? I keep thinking/hoping you feel some kind of homesickness for us here in the USA.
From – Rachel to Lorinda: Haha, no homesickness for America yet..
I do have a regular teaching schedule now, instead of bouncing between 3 different schools. I complained to the director of China Horizons after the first 2 weeks of teaching, and they got it sorted it. We are the first teachers here, so the school doesn’t understand what the norm is. I have 14 classes a week, 52 or more kids in each- I have a goal to remember all their names (wish me luck!!) I teach 4- 6th grades. I showed up today and I guess I have no classes at all this week- I'm used to getting no notice with these kind of things, it’s just life in China. I'm trying to figure out how to use it. I may go to Weifang, or possibly Qingdao again. Sara still has class, so where ever I go, I'd go by myself. But I've been to both places already. I won’t be able to go to Shanghai in China :( Too far. But there are many other places that I have seen, and have yet to see.
One night, while Sara spent the weekend in Weifang herself, I stayed here- On the way to a supermarket (about 45 min walk from my apt) an old man well over 100 started talking to me. He talked in barely a whisper- I spoke the little Chinese I know, and after that point just said "I don’t know" in Chinese. haha. So he started to write Chinese characters in the dirt on the ground...I still had no idea. So, I took my camera out, to change the subject- and took picture of him. I've decided his English name should be Alex. People love to see pictures on my camera- and are willing to pose for one themselves to see them on my display screen :) I waved goodbye and said "zhi Zjien!!" I don’t know how you actually write it- but that looks good to me. On my way home, Alex was sitting outside with a huge heavy coat. So I sat on a step close by and offered him a banana. He ate it, and I ate one myself. Then we threw the peels in a field across from us. We didn’t say anything- but I could tell he has a good sense of humor. When we did gaze at each other at the same time, we'd both smile and laugh. We just sat there. I don’t know how long I was there for, but his son, or son in law or someone, maybe grandson- (its hard to know- in china, people have kids when they are super old, you see people in their 70s with an kid not even in school yet, I've asked if it’s a grandchild- and they say “no, no, no, my son.” Go figure- or maybe my Chinese is even worse than I think). Anyway, a guy came out trying to sell me things and was being pretty aggressive, so after a few minutes of that I said "I don’t want it" in Chinese, and said goodbye again.
As I was cleaning our apt that same weekend (houses get dirty FAST in China- we get a lot of visitors and it’s a bad impression on us, and they assume all Americans are like us- so I go the extra mile to make things tidy) for entertainment, I turned the TV on- I don’t watch it very often here, but when I do- it’s fascinating. I love it when I can understand phrases here and there. From watching TV I've learned inflections better and noticed more Chinese body language-- when others speak to me at school, I can pick up their body language sometimes, and even though I couldn’t understand what they said, I know what they were asking- does that make sense? I can give them an answer....usually. There are always subtitles in Chinese during episodes of TV shows - not news, just shows. I think it’s because of so many dialects, it’s really hard to understand people from other provinces sometimes. When we went to Qingdao- I was pretty confident in knowing simple Chinese, but I couldn’t even say "Ni Hao" or Hello right- other people have mentioned that too...I don’t know if it’s a fact. Anyway, so I listened and watched parts of Shrek in Chinese, a Chinese version of the Telletubbies (I still can’t stand it!!!) a cartoon Disney Chinese Channel (remember the cartoon called "Recess",) and then every weekend they play an American movie in Chinese on channel 13. This week it was Pirates of the Caribbean #2, I think? It took me 15 minutes to notice they were actually speaking in English, not Chinese...I didn’t try to understand, I was just watching with my eyes, not ears. When I got up to go to the kitchen, and I could hear it, I was really confused. haha. Go figure.
I still haven’t had any tummy issues. I think its cause I cook the majority of the food we eat at home- others from our China Horizons group eat out quite a bit. Only when we eat with friends or a banquet the headmaster puts on, is when we don’t cook for ourselves. We eat a lot of veggies, and eggs. I've been getting more familiar cooking with their beef here, and will be experimenting with fish eventually- we were just cautioned against cooking our raw meat ourselves. Most others just go to a restaurant when they want meat. It’s cheap, but cheaper to make it at home (and more fun) Also, when Sara went to Qingdao with 2 other teachers from WEifang (I stayed home- I figure, why spend the money for 1 day? use it for a weekend, or a week long trip)- anyway, Sara found pancake mix and pepper jack cheese and butter. It was exciting- you can’t find those very often, and they are expensive!! I like Chinese food just fine though- I don’t need an American fix. I'm just glad I didn’t go to Hunan where all the food is spicy. One of my students gave me this spicy gummy candy (like a sour straw thing- but spicy) and I ate it, and about gagged. They thought it was pretty entertaining though. UGH.
Anyway- not too much of an update really- just random things about China I haven't told you, I don’t think. Things are going well with me, I wish I was busier- 14 classes isn’t enough. It’s starting to get colder, we have hot water now :) I thought cold water was normal, and I was just fine with it (I got good at the hokey pokey...you put your right hand in...)- but now that we have hot, it is quite nice. We also got our stove fixed...anyway- we got everything fixed that wasn’t working, even things that we didn’t know were even broken. Life is quite good. I'm starting to really like drinking hot water. I thought it was weird at first, but I just drink it without noticing now. It supposedly helps with avoiding getting sick. The important thing is to keep the inside of your body warm, and the outside. People here wear heavy coats when its 60 degrees outside. I wear shorts and they offer me a pair of pants to wear. I say “no, no, no, no. I am warm, it is nice weather” and they said, “no, no, no, no, no. It is cccoooollllddddd”
Anyway - Love ya,
Rachel
