Just wrapping up

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Gao Jing is gone. She got a job teaching at a middle school near her home town. She left this morning. As such She will not be able to go to Shanghai to see me off. I am still expecting He Zhi Qing to be able to go. She is here studying as I write this. She is preparing for her entrance exam to the Graduate school in Shanghai and has nowhere, heated, to study.

I can not help but feel that the lack of comfort reduces their marks for the winter tests. It is known that if a student fails the entrance exam in the winter they will do better in the spring. It seems that someone would realize what is happening and heat the room that they take the exam in.

But, then, they really do feel that heat is bad in the winter. I go past apartments when it is below freezing and the windows and doors are open. Some students came over two days ago and noticed that my apartment was warm and immediately set to opening the doors and were going for the windows when I stopped them... “But, it is not safe to have your doors cosed when your flat is warm.” This comes from having heat that is provided by burning a chunk of coal in the middle of the room.

I was up in my classroom over the weekend removing my posters ( I had stuff all over the walls emphasizing that it was an English classroom). Most of them were free from the EPA and the Maryland department of tourism. Gao Jing took the Cursive guide. The cursive went over well and I had other students (students who were not in my classes) asking what time I did the cursive modules so that they could sit in on them. Those of you who have ever seen my cursive probably find this one a bit funny.

He Zhi Qing took the “gifts of the Romans” poster. She just liked the way it looked. Another student took the work map provided by National Geographic and the World Heritage Foundation.

What was left was taken to the office. I have no idea what they will do with them, I expect them to put them up in the office seeing as they do not have assigned classrooms. That was an oddity that the foreign teachers requested.

They also sent a student to came and pick up the English language books that I am leaving behind. The books that are currently in circulation should end up in the main library. That is what I told the students that have them to do with them.

We packed up the things that were in, and around, my desk and carried them back to my flat. Many, like the gifts, I will send back to the states.

Dez is also leaving (well, as I write this, he has already left). We were asked to attend a hastily assembled English club meeting to say good bye. It surprised both of us how many students were there.

Marks are done

Well, the semester is over. All I can say is that being here now has a remarkably “short timer” feel to it. I have been doing this for two and a half years and I have gotten a lot of experience. Not only in living in China; but also the professional experience I came here for. Very simply, I am comfortable, and competent, standing in front of a classroom.

Unlike when I arrived (and I was reviewing some of my first writings from China this morning) when I stand in front of the class I am prepared (because I have prepared) and I know it. The students have commented on my level of preparation, it shows. It shows in both confidence but also in an ability to change plans quickly. I develop several modules and if one fails to engage a particular student, while interesting others, the next one will will work with that student (while I do not develop modules with particular students in mind, I do develop them with the various learning styles in mind).

The finals went well and, again, relied on several different learning styles. There were sections involving quick research ( a crossword with the word list given; however, the word list was not related to the order in the puzzle leaving the students looking up words and then matching the definitions to the hints in the puzzle). One section in involved short answer questions with the option to answer the questions orally for more credits (after all, it is a oral English class). There was also a short speech given as a part of a group.

Very simply, it worked quite well. If course most of my students got good marks. The class was very “A” heavy, but there were still some lower grades. The lower grades were almost always easily correlated to poor class attendance.

It is interesting, I often wonder how much good these classes do for the students. However, I have had these same students for about a year and a half and I can have had the opportunity to speak informally with most of them during the school year. The students who have not come to class (and there are not may of those this year) on a regular basis have, simply, not shown the same level of improvement.

I still believe that informal conversation is one of the best teaching tools we have; however, to us that approach properly relies on the teacher being approachable. One of the things I have done in order to make myself approachable has been, simply, to eat my lunches in the cafeteria.

The Grinch

I felt like a total Grinch in Christmas. I have told most of the students that I am not returning; but some didn't get the word. As it happened, Christmas was the last day of classes, before I started my exams, for many of the students in my classes (regular exams started the next week). On that day I made sure that they understood that I would not be their teacher next term by stating it clearly. As stated, many students were expecting it, they were still saddened to hear it explicitly stated.

It was class six that made me feel like such a caitiff. They, as a class, had made me a card for Christmas, which the had all signed. A group of very pretty girls (of course, there all beautiful) had given it to me at the beginning of class (I do not know if I ever mentioned it, they prefer “Girls.” “Woman” implies that someone is married, or if applied to an unmarried woman... is improper)

Then (not directly, at the beginning of the second half of class) I gave them the news that I was not returning, like I had done in my other classes. They started crying. All I can say is that I felt terrible. It seems that, for them, this had been unexpected. What thing to do to them on Christmas.

My birthday, a party, and a museum

Sorry for the picture quality on this one. Most of these were taken with my pocket camera.

From 16 Nov 08

Some students have been reading my recent writing, instead of describing my comments as some would, as a jingoistic diatribe, they, universally, agreed with the accuracy of my comments and observations. They recognized the, ,near universal, disrespect for historic places and things. While recognizing that the attitudes look wrong when phrased the way I do, they see them as, just the way things are.

They found out that this week was my birthday. My Internet connection in the flat was not working (again) so I logged into my e-mail in the classroom, before class. As I was reading it several students arrived quite early. They happened to see the letter from Ken Lowdermilk and quickly passed the word.

That group of students then sent a member to purchase flowers, which are now in my classroom. In the next class a group of the students invited me to lunch and I ad a very good time. It does seem a bit odd to have students invite me to lunch, here it is not considered uncommon or unethical at all. They also purchased a small cake and a singing candle bomb (a candle thing that unfolds and lights more candles as it plays an electronic version of happy birthday).

From 16 Nov 08

From 16 Nov 08

From 16 Nov 08

My first class today then threw my schedule by bringing in a large cake which we shared at the beginning of class. As this had thrown my schedule I started a movie instead of using mu planned lesson (the lesson will keep, at least all but the daily news, which we did use) . I had a lot of reservations about this movie Tristan & Isolde; but, it seems to be going over very well. As my classes are about 20-1 in favor of the girls (and they prefer, “girls,” getting offended when I say, “women,”) I was mostly concerned as I see this as more of a, “guy film.” I will have a better idea next week when we do the discussion portion of the class.

We will include that in the stuff that we will cover in class on Monday through Wednesday, when we talk about the movie. I also have the stock, “describe the characters of ...,” and, “did you like, would you recommend the movie, why?,” question. Ten is the killer question of, “did they do the right thing why or why not, explain your answer, “ stuff. The real purpose is to get them talking and to keep the discussion focused and to have a topic. Many of the students want to talk but feel that they have nothing to talk about, in some of these cases, movies can help.

Then, on Friday, after school, the girls (about 42 of them) in a couple of my classes had a party. I was rather pleased to be invited and, of course I did attend. The class parties are generally held in an unused classroom. It still seems to be a bit odd to me; but it is just the way. That did give them use of the audio-video equipment for karaoke, which there was a lot of. They also held several impromptu dance competitions.

Most of the girls do take a dance class as part of the PE curriculum. Asa result, most of them are pretty good dancers and can, quickly, put together a ,synchronized, group dance for a variety of types of music.

On Saturday He Zhi Qing came over and we went to the museum. It struck me as interesting, when I asked my student's if there was a museum I got a universal answer of, “no, there is not one,” from them. Then, I was out with the riding club and I asked what a particular, odd looking, building was. They told me, “it is the museum.” At that point I not only knew there there was one; bit, I also knew where it was.

From 10 Nov 08

Then, on my riding trip to Ling Shan, I found the one last bit of information that I needed. I found its name, Historical Museum of the Revolution of Xinyang, The Martyr Commemorates The Wall. I then asked some questions about it and was told that it is always open.

He Zhi Qing and I got to the museum and found that was not quite the truth. It was not open on Saturdays. She asked and was told that they would have people to open it for us on Sunday. At that point we returned to my flat and worked on material for my class. I played with the 'never ending story game' see if she would get the idea. If she, or Gao Jing, does not understand an instruction, then it is pretty sure that my class will not either.

We then went to Dio's for dinner. This is one of the more expensive restaurants in town. We usually go to noodle shops and such. That night I just felt like going somewhere nicer. It was a bit strange to me to have a person stand by the table the entire time I am eating just to make sure that my glass is never empty and that I have all I need. It was good; but, like I said, I usually eat at cheaper places.

From 16 Nov 08

I did try to make He Zhi Qing use a fork. It went reasonably well; however, it was obvious that she was more comfortable with chopsticks (kuaizi 筷子).

The next day we returned to the museum at the time they had given us. The person that we needed to pay to get in was at home so we had to wait about a half-hour. We spent the time walking around this, rather industrial, part of the city.

There was a lot of construction at one place and He Zhi Qing described it as, “a hospital, like in that movie 'flew over the co-co birds nest.” She agreed that this meant a psychiatric hospital, one would hope that it would not be like the hospital in one flew over the co-co's nest.

We then walked back to the museum, just as the person who was supposed to take our money was arriving. I wanted to take some pictures of the mock airplane in front; but the guard wanted to make sure that we would not get lost on the way to the entrance. The courtyard was quire large; but there was no way we would get lost.

From 16 Nov 08

I think he was also in a hurry to get us to the door so that he could unlock it and return to his heated guards room. This is the thing that was most noticeable, not that the heating and AC were turned off, not even that most of the lights were off; depending on the skylights for lighting instead. No, what was noticeable was that other than employees, and us, there was not one there. Even the guest book, which I signed, showed that there had never been many visitors.

From 16 Nov 08

From 16 Nov 08

From 16 Nov 08

From 16 Nov 08

From 16 Nov 08

From 16 Nov 08

Everyone who has read this far knows that I am a Museum lover. I make an effort to visit the museums in every city I go to (yes, I missed the Museum of Sexology in Wuhan). My criticisms of this museum need to be considered against the reality that it is a new museum; and as such, it does not have a large collection artifacts (interestingly, the word, “artifacts,” does not seem to translate, well, to Chinese). It also seems to lack focus. This is apparently a result of an effort to use whatever artifacts that they have on hand.

The purpose of the mock airplane in front was to recognize that the first airplane in the Peoples Army had crashed here. He Zhi Qing insisted that the information board said, “landed;” but when you land and lose the wings and landing gear, as shown in the pictures, I feel safe in calling it a crash.

From 16 Nov 08

The number of artifacts was disappointing. Further, they were often representative artifacts; such as, not the lamp use by a famous general, but a lamp 'like the one' used by a famous general. In general. The museum featured photos and a small number of assorted artifacts from the late 1800's to the mid 1950's. These were supported by a number of dioramas, some of which seemed unfinished. Even HZQ seemed a bit disappointed that the hall of Martyrs, the last exhibit on the museum, principally featured people who were not from the local area, or even province (state), and many of them had died well after the revolution.

My suggestion, one made in the guest book , was to increase the number of locally significant artifacts, And, to include more information on both the history of Xinyang and its significance, both to China and the revolution.

After the museum we went and did some shopping and returned to the college. I had a “meet the Foreigner” lecture scheduled for the math department at 19:00 so we ate at a shop that I have never tried (and liked well enough that I will return to it) near the main gate of the school. I then returned to my flat and left HZQ there and hurried off to be taken to the math building.

From 16 Nov 08

I returned just as HZQ was finishing watching Mean Girls; which she then recommended for my, nearly all girl, classes. I gave her a gift (some flowers) to be taken to Gao Jing, and she wandered back to her dorm.

And with that, another week has passed.

A place I often eat breakfast

Walking to the College this week

Jigong Shan 鸡公山 and Ling Shan 灵山

From 2 NOV 08

Last week was a bit drizzly; so, when it cam to making firm plans for the weekend I was a bit reluctant. Last weekends trip was an adventure in misery. It seemed that the tourism majors wanted some western victims to torture. There is no group of people singularly more unqualified to lead western tourists as Chinese tourism majors.

From 2 NOV 08

From 2 NOV 08

They have two basic instructions, never loose a tourist and get to, what they consider to be, the attraction quickly. The result is that they want everyone to remain in a tight group. To not risk mixing with other groups, and to keep moving. Because there are groups behind them, there is great pressure to keep moving even faster.

From 2 NOV 08

From 2 NOV 08

From 2 NOV 08

They think they know what tourists find interesting and any attempt to stop and take a picture anywhere else is met with great displeasure. Eventually I put my camera back into my back-pack and left it there until I had managed to ditch the “tour guides.” Attempts to take pictures were met with, “there is nothing interesting here, we must keep going.”

The path was about 4.5km made up mostly of broken concrete slabs, used as steps. While they refer to it as, “climbing the mountain,” it is climbing endless stairs to the top of the mountain.

There is a resort at the top of the mountain that I have written about before. It was the headquarters of Chiang Kai-Shek (蒋中正) during the war against Japan. At the resort, having ditched the tour guides. Dez, Brianne and myself went to the more interesting places, such as: Soong May-Ling's (宋美齡) ballroom (the wife of the famous General), the air raid shelter, and other visited other historic buildings (to the Chinese “historic” has no special meaning, it just means “old”）at this large site.

From 2 NOV 08

I even tried some “snake wine” it was vile, like all the other bai jo (saki) here. However, there was an attraction to drinking something with an assortment of serpents fermenting in the bottle. The vendor/snake handler having only one arm just added to the weirdness of the occasion.

From 2 NOV 08

We later met up with the tour guides and began the 7km, hurried, walk back to the buses. The walk took us past many of the other buildings built by westerners before they were ordered to leave this western island in the center of China, there was no compensation, the Chinese army just arrived and said, “you must leave now.” The buildings and fixtures were then taken for the Chinese officers who later sold or abandoned them and are slowly decaying into ruin.

From 2 NOV 08

From 2 NOV 08

This brings me to something else that I was discussing with some students last week. I was asking about the Chinese lack of maintenance. There really is none, if something breaks then it will get the bare minimum of repair that is necessary to get it working again and nothing more and most of the buildings, if they are not new, are a short step from being crumbling ruins.

From 2 NOV 08

From 2 NOV 08

The answer was a cultural gap. They said, “if it is old you should get a new one,” in reference to cars, bicycles and machines. As far as buildings, they felt that the buildings should be allowed to fall into disrepair. That way they provide places to build new buildings. If you see America as a throw away society, you ain't seen nothing...

From 10 Nov 08

This weekend I planned to go on a ride with bicycle club, who tend to go places that I enjoy and have a very tolerant attitude, even if some of the stuff we do is just plain nutty. I didn't set an alarm on Saturday, as Friday was raining and the weather report said, “more rain.” So, of course, it was a fine, if cloudy, day. As such I didn't do much on Saturday, I went and got a haircut, did some cleaning in my flat, and walked up to my classroom to watch a movie on the big screen that I have in there.

I had to go to the classroom to do some class related stuff anyways. Last week was a test, I had them giving short presentations and I had left my grade notes in the room so I needed to go up and get them. I also wanted to d/l some stuff into my laptop. Due to the network security in the residences I am unable to connect my eeePC. However, the security is entirely turned off in my classroom. So, I use that connection when I need one.

Then, on Sunday I awoke in a timely manner and got ready to go. I was a bit slow getting out the door and as I approached the bike club meeting place someone shouted for me and I saw the club going the opposite direction on the street I was on. I made a U turn (yes, in traffic; hey, this is China, everyone drives like that) and pulled into the line. This put me near the head of the procession and I put effort into maintaining my position I the line.

The nice thing about being in the front of the pack is that you get longer rest breaks. However, unlike the tour guides, this group understands that a rest break means that you wait until your heart rate has returned to near resting.

From 10 Nov 08

As usual we made frequent rest breaks, about every 10km on the way out. And had a good time. The group does get real spread out. I am always in the front half and what I have noticed is that the front half, while it is spread, is way ahead of the last quarter. Those of us near the front raced through some little village with a main street that amounted to little more than and alley. Then we left there the road turned to reed covered concrete. To insure that it was slick enough, there was a person out throwing water on the reeds. Shortly after that it turned to dirt as it took us past another walled village.

From 10 Nov 08

From 10 Nov 08

From 10 Nov 08

From 10 Nov 08

From 10 Nov 08

From 10 Nov 08

We then entered a small town for yet another rest and regroup. From there the front runners raced to the destination about 15 km away. The whole way, as we were maintaining speeds between the high twenties to the low thirties, I kept two thoughts in my mind, one was as I approached turns and poor surfaces, was, “ in order to win you have to stay in the game.” The second thought was, “someone has to be last; but, it sure as hell isn't going to be me.” I was third to the destination. And, I still felt good.

From 10 Nov 08

From 10 Nov 08

From 10 Nov 08

We then did the usual picture taking and then headed off for lunch. When we got to the first restaurant we found that they did not have the facilities for all of us as this was an unusually large crowd (I had counted 59 and I think there were more). A group then headed off and I thought that they were going to some other, nearby restaurant. That turned out to not be the case, they were going to the next large town, to a place that we often eat on these rides. It was about 14km away. I have to say, at that point, I was getting a bit tired and testy.

From 10 Nov 08

From 10 Nov 08

From 10 Nov 08

From 10 Nov 08

As there were only about 15 of us who had ridden off, we spread out and pretty quickly were riding by ourselves. There was no real way to get lost as about 1-2 km away was a major highway. It was visible during a lot of the ride. If I had really needed to I could have cross countried it to the highway and gone back that way. At one point the road I was on even went under the highway, and I recognized that spot from previous trips.

From 10 Nov 08

From 10 Nov 08

From 10 Nov 08

In a couple more kilometers I met up with the others for lunch, with a few stragglers falling in behind. Lunch was actually pretty good and we rested for a little while; but, nothing like the three hours common to the rides. About that time we started to get ready to go. I wandered to a, nearby, store for water and was a bit of excitement for the people in the shop. While the owner of the restaurant had seen and recognized me from before, the others had not realized that I was there. The shopkeeper even called out her daughter, who was in the process of washing her hair, in order to see the foreigner.

From 10 Nov 08

From 10 Nov 08

From there we pushed back. It was about forty kilometers and there were no real planned groups. The return trip generally ends up that way, for whatever it seems that the return leg is much more “on your own.” I was in a bit of a hurry, as I was expecting to meet some students at 16:30 so I was pushing. This kept me near the front and even at my rest breaks I was checking my pulse and the time. This is actually the first time I have entered the city first ( really I was second, I was passing the first person as he was entering the city).

I would have been fourth but one of the front group blew a tyre and his friends stopped to help him. There was no reason for me to stop as there was nothing I could do. Besides, you know you are in touch with your evil side when you see a person in front of you have a mechanical failure and your thought is, “ah, there is justice!”

From 10 Nov 08