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.

Rice

The community is a-buzz tonight

Gather the rice! It’s time to harvest.

Driveways and sidewalks covered in grains,

Raked out into squares

A Zen garden of tiny gold pieces

Reed mats with frayed, curled edges

Hold thousands.

A long stretch of road,

A series of edible pyramids.

An old man bends to gather the last few handfuls.

Wide dust bins gulp up small mounds,

Then pour like rain into canvas bags

Bags of blue, green, red

Some with pictures of smiling pigs

Rows of bags standing like sentinels.

A woman cranks a machine

That separates the grain from its armor.

Reframing

Living in China is a very difficult thing to do.  I’m pretty certain that any foreigner who’s come to live in China would agree with that.  A lot of little things happen on an almost daily basis that can really drive you crazy!  Why are roads left full of pot holes?  Why does the repairman leave all kind of junk on my floor when he leaves?  Why are people at my school still staring at me after I’ve been here for a year?  Why do we have to teach on weekends to make up the days we have holidays??

I could go on and on.  If I let all these little things get to me, they would become huge things and I would always be angry.  However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about living in China, it’s how to reframe things so they are more positive. 

Just this morning I was glancing through the journal entries I last year, and I was struck by some pretty negative ideas from one day in December:

“I’m starting to get really bored here.”

“The honeymoon phase is definitely over.”

“I’m tired of all the stupid questions that students always ask me: ‘Can you use chopsticks?’ ‘Can you speak Chinese?’ ‘Do you have a boyfriend?’

Of course there are still some days when I feel bored or lonely or that the days are all the same.  But last week I did an activity with some of my classes to break up the monotony of repeated questions.  Usually on the first day of class, I reserve some time for students to ask any question about me, and those three are just some examples of the inane questions I often receive.  So this year I decided to do something different.  I made posters with questions and they had to guess the answers about me.  I made it a competition by dividing the class into groups.  If they got a question right, their group would get one point, and if not I would go to the next group until someone gave the correct answer.  I included some of the most commonly asked questions (how many people are in your family, when did you come to China, how old are you, etc) as well as other questions that I think are interesting that they might not think to ask (what was your major, how many countries have you been to, where did you study abroad).  The result was a really fun competition.  I got some interesting answers: some thought I was 26; I was from Russia; I majored in Chemistry.  I have no siblings.  My trick question was, Does Mira have a boyfriend? How old is he?  Most groups would just jump to telling me the age, but I kept repeating the first part of the question until someone responded that I don’t have a boyfriend, which is the correct answer.

Something rather frustrating about my schedule this semester is that every day except Thursday, I have a split period: I teach a class 1.5 hours but it’s split up by the lunch break in between.  Monday and Tuesday I only have one class each day, but because it’s the split class, I can’t relax or feel done after lunch.  I think this is rather silly but I understand that they had to do that.  And the good thing is that if, like today, I realize the lesson I’d planned is too hard, I have time before the second half of the class to revise it!  I was teaching about syllables today, and I’d wanted to talk about stressed vs unstressed syllables, but I realized after the first half that they seemed a little lost.  So then I modified the lesson to focus on counting syllables.

Plus, I can’t really complain about my schedule this year because this year I have 250 students… last year I taught about 700.  Life is good!

The last example of my endeavors to reframe negative things as positive things is in regards to the English library.  Last year, we shared a space with an art classroom, but there was a wall in between so there were two clearly separated rooms.  We could be doing English Corner while an art class was in session and we’d each have privacy.  Imagine my surprise when I took the new foreign teacher, Kayla, up to see the English library, only to find that the wall had been taken out completely, leaving one giant room!  My jaw definitely dropped.  Our books and shelves were all still there, but what was to become of our precious library??  Apparently the school didn’t realize the effect that would have, but that space was so valuable to us foreign teachers.  We did a lot of activities there, including our weekly English Corner and holiday parties.  It was a big space with desks and chairs but also an open space for dancing and games.  I made a big fuss to the waiban (school official who helps the foreign teachers) and I think he realized how upset I was.  I’m usually pretty indirect when dealing with Chinese people because that is the cultural norm, but this time I was very honest with him.  I said, “I know it’s not your fault, but I want you to know that this makes me really mad.”  Since then, he has talked to the school president and they are currently clearing out a room for us.  I have no idea where it will be, so for now all I can hope is that it will be better in some way: bigger, on the ground floor instead of the 4^th where it had been, or it will have a monitor for showing movies.

Our library last year (enclosed, with walls all around!)

GASP!! Where's the wall???  (Can you see that column in the first picture?  And the WALL with windows on either side of it? GONE!!!)