Update on my life

Craziness will ensue when a group of awesome people get together!  We had a potluck so each of us brought a dish or dessert.  Another foreigner teacher (not with Peace Corps) enlisted a large group of students to help him make about 20 pizzas and over 100 little berry tarts, among other things.  We had a wonderful feast which was followed by a dance party with the students and some of the school leaders.  -Thanksgiving celebration in Nejiang, Sichuan Province, 2014 (hosted by Felicia and Luis).

For English Corner at Thanksgiving, Kayla and I taught the students to make turkey headbands.

Student performances in early December

It was very cold... thank goodness for the bonfire!

With Sophia and Taylor after their performances

For 3 days, Kayla and I hosted a cyclist from England named Jon.  He biked all through Europe, and then flew to Xinjiang and biked down to Gansu.  In Zhangye he met Yiannis and from then on he was hopping from one Peace Corps Volunteer's site to another!  In Jiangyou, we attended a student dance competition, baked, ate hot pot, and because some of the female teachers were impressed with Jon, went to a bar (which was the first time Kayla and I had been to a bar in Jiangyou!)

Goodbye Jon! Enjoy your next adventures.

For our Women's Group Christmas Party, we had each girl bring a wrapped gift and we did a gift exchange game.  Vivian and Yvonne were excited to receive the goldfish!

Students enjoying the cookies they decorated.  After the crazy Halloween Party, Kayla and I learned our lesson.  We did not leave any food out, and when we were ready for the cookie decorating, Kayla stayed with the box of cookies the whole time and I helped keep the students in line.  At this first party there was still some pushing, but nonetheless the students really enjoyed the cookies.

Before the party, K and I prepared this fun fireplace decoration.  During the two parties, students made paper stockings and placed them on the wall.  Here are Lacey (L) and Vimy showing off the adorable stockings.

The students were very creative in their stockings!

This was taken at our second Christmas party, for which we selected hardworking students and invited them personally.  The students at this party were actually much more well-behaved than the students at the first party, and when Kayla brought out the box of cookies, they kept a distance until we invited students to come over and decorate, a few people at a time.

Skyping with my family on Christmas morning! Thank goodness for technology that makes it feel like we're all together in the same room for the special holiday, even though in reality we're on opposite sides of the world. 

The weekend after Christmas, Kayla and I went to Chengdu to pick up her boyfriend, Steven, at the airport.  She was so excited to be reunited with him!

I made stockings for our Christmas celebration

Kayla wanted to give Steven a special Christmas celebration, since he'd been traveling in Nepal and India and wouldn't be with his family either.

After Steven made us a delicious breakfast of banana-walnut pancakes, we made gingerbread houses!

Steven came to visit Kayla's class on Monday.  The students were VERY excited to meet him!

In January after finishing my classes, I went down to southern Sichuan to visit a student, Christina, and stay with her family.

We visited some beautiful caves with colorful lights and amazing karst rock formations.

I'd thought I'd find warmer weather down south, but actually one night it was so cold that it snowed!

Lamb hotpot!!  Later they added thistle.  It was so delicious.

After visiting Christina, I came back up to Chengdu for the Peace Corps In-Service Training (IST).  Here are a few of my buddies, in one of the 5 pictures I took that whole week (oops).

Dancing with Peace Corps volunteers at a bar in Chengdu.  It's always a party when we're together!!

After IST, I spent a week with a student named Sunflower who lives near the city of Yibin, about 6 hours east of Chengdu (by train).  This is me and her aunt's family.  That's her sister on the far right, in the blue sweatshirt.

Sunflower's mom preparing food in the kitchen.  In the top left you can see hunks of meat drying out.  The stove is a cement block with holes where they stoke the fire.  There is no refrigerator and so they store food in a closed cabinet.  They also don't have running water but water from an underground well is pumped up to fill two large cement tub-like basins.

This is the bathroom. Yes, that's a pig sleeping in a pen!  That little trough on the right is where you squat and do your business, while a pig grunts behind your back.  In case you're wondering, he doesn't eat the human waste- that empties out under the floor, and then Sunflower's parents fish it out to use as fertilizer in their farm.  Apparently having a pig in your bathroom is the norm in the countryside- I saw the same thing in her aunt's house, and in her uncles' house.

Sunflower and I!  During my time there, we visited her relatives, bathed in the hot springs, went for walks in her hometown, went fishing at a local pond, and enjoyed the delicious meals prepared by her family!!

One day we went to a funeral for Sunflower's grandma's brother, and after we played with her young cousins.

Thriller with students

Halloween Party 2013

Last night’s Halloween Party was a chaotic jumble where things didn’t always go as planned but everyone had a great time (and took a bazillion pictures).

            A group of students helped Kayla and I bring all the party materials to the English Library around 6, for the party which would start at 7.  They were a great help, even though most of them were new students and didn’t speak English well.  We laid out the food (bread bones, chocolate caramel apples, pumpkin bread, oranges with jack-o-lantern faces drawn on, and banana ghosts).  We had apples for bobbing and we put them in a bowl with water to show that they were off-limits.  We attached the photo props to chopsticks and set them by the Halloween decorations to serve as a backdrop.  Paper, glue sticks, pencils, and stencils were set out on the table for mask-making.  I had hoped to have the students carve pomelo skins for jack-o-lanterns like last year, but unfortunately after sitting in my apartment for a few days the skins were moldy and soggy.  Only one was still dry and almost mold-free.  I cut a face in it, intending to light a candle underneath and encourage students to try the idea at home. By 6:30 students were already arriving, and next thing you know I’m swept into a flurry of photo-taking with students that lasts for the next thirty minutes. 

            <I should tell the students not to eat the apples because they’re for a game…>

            Mira, come take a photo with me! 

            Now me!

            <Two steps forward, elbow is grabbed>

            Here wear this mask!  Take a photo, ok?

            <Students keep walking off with the photo props and not putting them back, I should collect them.>

            Mira, this is my friend! She wants to have a photo with you.

            I love you!

            <Ok we just met, but I love you too!>

            Kayla, Mira, come take a photo!

            <Ugh that girl is wearing the semi-moldy pomelo jack-o-lantern on her head, I should probably tell her not to.>

            Mira, look at our masks!

            <Oh those are great! Let me take some pictures.>

            The students must not have eaten in weeks, because they devoured EVERYthing edible on that table.  They must have wondered why the heck the apples were floating in water.  Well, so much for bobbing for apples.  Needless to say, my intentions weren’t completely fulfilled.  The apples were eaten, the photo props wandered off and a few were incorporated into students’ masks, and the pomelo skin bounced from head to head.  I guess I can’t be everywhere at once, especially when there are 50 students crowded into a small library!

            We had a contest for the students who’d made masks, but because I could never move more than two feet across the room, I wasn’t able to tell them how to make them more interesting.  Many students just cut out the mask shape and tied on a string, without decorating it all.  I had all the students who’d made masks stand on one side of the room, and then chose 10 students to each choose their favorites.  From there, we whittled it down to about 6 winners.

            Apart from vanished apples and plain masks, the other activities were a huge success.  I’d brought 4 toilet paper rolls and it was riot to watch the teams compete to wrap their friends as mummies.  Pin-the-nose-on-the-pumpkin was hilarious, although Chinese students really need to loosen up and have a little fun.  They were giving correct instructions to the blind-folded person! Where is the fun in that?!  It amuses me greatly to offer cheers when they’re about to place the nose in the wrong place, and see the surprise on their faces when they lift the scarf. 

            One of the highlights of the night was teaching students part of the Thriller dance.  Kayla and I had started learning it this past weekend.  I didn’t realize how many parts there were to the dance!  Videos on YouTube were only moderately helpful, but they went too fast and didn’t review enough.  To keep things simple, Kayla and I only taught 4 eight-counts.  The students loved it and it was really easy for them.

            We were surprised and rather overwhelmed at the number of students who came to the party.  We’d expected no more than 30, but about 50 came.  The noise and having to yell over everyone to get their attention left me with a headache by the end and I was happy when it was over, but the party went really well overall and I could see the excitement on my students’ faces and the gratitude when they said goodbye.  And in the end, that’s what always makes it worth all the headaches and frustrations.

The infamous pomelo skin jack-o-lantern

A busy morning

I turned to wash my hands in the sink when suddenly I saw a giant gray fur ball leap from behind the toilet and through the hole under the bathtub (don’t ask me why there’s a hole there- China seems to have an affinity for random, inexplicable holes in walls).

I let out a shriek and ran out, slamming the door behind me.

No, no, no. I can’t have rats.  Not in my apartment.

For the next hour, I sat on the couch, far away from the bathroom, debating what to do.  I briefly considered surrendering my bathroom to the vermin, but then a second later I realized I had to pee.  It would also be nice to brush my teeth and brush my hair before class!  Plus at some point I would need to shower again.  So that wasn’t an option. 

As horrified and disgusted as I was to see the bugger, it did solve a mystery that had been bothering me for some time.  There was one day a few weeks ago when I returned from class to find that the toilet paper in my bathroom trashcan had sunk down, as if someone had pushed it down.  I was struck by that because I’d distinctly remembered noticing it was getting pretty full only a few hours earlier when I’d left that morning.  I was baffled, but it quickly left my mind, until two days ago something happened that was harder to ignore.  I was at my apartment Sunday morning, and a few hours after using the bathroom I went in again, only to find that the entire bag from the trashcan was gone, and the can was knocked over!  It really freaked me out to know that something was in my apartment.  I definitely hadn’t taken it out and forgotten because I’d hadn’t yet left my apartment, so if I’d tied up the bag it would still be inside.  After I saw Stupid McRat-Face, I knew he’d taken the paper for his nest and mostly had been snacking on used toilet paper. Ick.

So I had to do something but I didn’t want to do it alone.  I would get Kerry or Kayla to help me!  I didn’t want to use poison or traps because then I’d have to deal with the smell and the dead body. Ughh.  No thanks. Plus, I don’t think I could kill something like a rat.  Cockroaches and spiders, yes.  But a rat isn’t so far from a hamster or even a cat.  So I’d have to cover up the hole.  Cardboard and tape! That should work.

After about an hour, I really had to pee, so I suited up by putting on sneakers (no fool is going to bite my toes!) and armed myself with a broom.  I prepared a cardboard square, packing tape, and scissors.  I realized from having seen the rat leap so quickly into the hole that it was probably just as scared of me as I was of it.  So before entering, I turned on the light and banged on the door to announce my presence.  I opened the door slowly, peering left and right before coming in and closing it behind me.  I peered behind the toilet and under the plastic shelving to make sure he was actually in his sub-tub home.  The tape screeched as I made a border around the cardboard, then before I could chicken out I quickly slapped the square over the porcelain hole and flattened down the tape.  The hardest part was over!  I reinforced it all around with more and more tape, and shook the broom in the air in victory!

  To be honest, I’m still a little nervous that little mister fuzz will appear out of some other hole or drain, but I’m proud that I dealt with the problem on my own.

It turns out a full bladder is a very strong motivating force.

Sorry Ratigan, Splinter, and Templeton. You guys are cool, but I don't want you or your friends in my apartment!!

Leaving class

Chalk powder cakes my hands and clothes
As I leave the classroom
Skirt billows in a rare breeze
Heel to calf to scratch a bug bite
ToespressagainstleatherasIdescendthehill
P a c e  s l o w s  a s  I  r e a c h  f l a t  g r o u n d
Voices shout "good morning" from behind
Whispers...
"Good afternoon!!" they correct, followed by a burst of giggles
Sidelong glance as I briefly return the greeting
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th floor
Dig under chalk, phone, pen, and small papers for keys
Door opens, bag and keys fall to the table, and I drop into a blue leather chair.
Today's teaching is finished!

My 2nd China Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday, and in honor of the occasion, I chose birthdays to be the theme for my Listening and Video classes in the morning.  I had the students fill in the missing lyrics on a worksheet for “Birthday” by The Beatles, did a dictation about Pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and played the game, had the students line up in order of their birthdays without talking, and a few other games.  After class, I did nothing, just watched Antz and an episode of Mad Men.  Kayla made a surprise treat for me: blondies with coconut, banana, and chocolate!  So delicious.

Later I met Kayla and a student Vimy for dinner.  Vimy’s roommates were supposed to come but Vimy told me they had other plans.  I was also expecting two other students but they were late. About 15 minutes later, they showed up with hamburgers from Dico’s (a fast food place here), and a cake shaped liked a bear face!  We ate some delicious Sichuan dishes before going up to the library for the party I’d scheduled.  Little did I expect that all my guests would be there waiting to jump out with balloons when I appeared!  I turned the corner and suddenly they all yelled happy birthday, and everyone was giving me hugs and handing me gifts.  It was so sweet, and I was really touched.  The great thing was that I’d just been thinking earlier in the day that I’d never had a surprise party, and now I have!!  I loved it.  And I realized that Vimy’s roommates’ “other plans” had been to prepare and wait for my surprise!  I had no idea.

At the party, we played freeze dance, Indian chief, charades, and Kayla and I taught them the electric slide.  Which was awesome because I’d been wanting to teach line dances for a while but never got to it.  I’d dreamed of it though, and it finally came true.  They learned it pretty quickly, and it was cool to look around and see my Chinese students dancing in time with us!  Some of them gave up after a short time, but a few kept up for the whole song. 

Our bookshelves weren’t brought down yet, but I still got my birthday wish of being able to use our new library.  I’m glad that was only a temporary setback.  Overall, it was a really great birthday.  Simple, but meaningful, which is all I ever ask for.

During Pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey in class, I flipped the paper to mess with this student, but some fool in the class told her it was upside down!! Gah, China and your fear of losing face. It's just a game, people! It's supposed to be silly.

The crazy delicious dessert the Kayla made for me! OM NOM NOM

Balloons, presents, and sweet people!

My goodies: thermos, lamp shaped like an ice cream with a face (my second favorite gift), nail polish, candy, earrings, and a stack of cards written by Vimy and each of her roommates (my favorite gift).

New library

Our new library, after I cleared out most of the trash.

After we had brought down all the books and posters

Two weeks after walking into the shock of our previous English library having lost its wall, I was handed the key to a new and slightly smaller room just one floor below.  I arrived to find a mess of books, crumpled papers, and bits of plastic and junk on the floor.  After pulling out unused notebooks and saving the clean pieces of paper for future art projects, I piled all the junk and moved it to the trash bins outside.  After dinner, a crew of about 9 loyal English Cornerians joined Kayla and I to clean the new room and also empty out the old room.  In an hour, we had swept and wiped the new room, and removed all the posters and wall decorations from the old.  We also removed all the books from the shelves, and brought them along with the games and DVDs down to the third floor.  All that remains is bringing down the bookshelves, which were too heavy for us girls to move.  It's such a relief to have so many willing and, for the most part, uncomplaining helpers for this otherwise frustrating situation!  To me, it's pretty dumb that our space was taken without our consultation, especially when the school keeps talking of moving to the nearby metropolis, Mianyang.  We now have to move with the possibility that in the not-too-distant future, someone will have to move the library again.  Then again, they've been saying for years that they're going to move and not much progress has been made.  It's too bad that our new room is smaller (about half the size).

But, consistent with my determination to see the positive aspects, I have noticed a few improvements.  The door to our new library is a lot easier to lock and unlock.  We have working light switches in the room, instead of inside another room with different key (remember how I said it had shared a wall with the art room? They also shared the lights, and unfortunately for us the switches were in the art room half).  Being on the 3rd floor instead of the 4th means one less flight of stairs to climb.  Plus, having bare walls and an empty room means a fresh start and a chance to go through the shelves and get rid of unnecessary things.  We can make this our space, however we want it to be!

I hope that soon the book shelves will be moved.  Tomorrow is my birthday and the only gift I want is to be able to celebrate in our new library.  And even if the shelves aren't yet relocated, we will still celebrate.  For as slow and frustrating things can be in China, it is great that after only two weeks we were able to at least partially settle in a new space.