My friend Bruce asked three of us foreign teachers to judge an English speaking competition at a local school specialized in teaching English. We judged two sessions of the competition in which there were some hilarious speeches. Two common songs were....'hello, hello, hello, hello, HELLO!' and 'sing, sing, sing, sing, SING!'....also many would say, 'my mother is beautiful, my father is cool, and i am lovely.' most of them pretty much had the hand movements down too to go along with their words. many gave speeches on the ugly duckling, snow white, and little red riding hood. all in all it was a cool experience. much of the world is trying to copy our culture with Disney characters, stories, and songs and learn English to compete with a global economy.
Started my new class today on watercolor and oil painting. it went very well and i am learning a lot about art as i teach it. i'm gonna come up with some cool ideas of things to have my students paint such as shoe boxes, trash cans, clothes, etc.
Thanksgiving was good, all the foreign teachers went to Colombo bbq where they serve up meat samurai style on swords and shear off the meat with a rambo knife right onto your plate, accompanied by their in-house made brew which is definitely better than most of the chinese beers aka snow, chero, liberty, blue diamond, fake budweisere, etc, et al.
Just booked several flights for my paid 6-week winter vacation....gotta love teaching! I am going to guanzhou, shanghai, hong kong, wuhan, bangkok thailand, angkor wat in cambodia, fuzhou and xiamen in fujian province, most likely somewhere in taiwan, and possibly tibet....as well as what other cities life takes me on my journey....it's gonna be epic/fo sho/true/$/awesome/chyeah/word/daps/dope/loving life....
Monday, November 29, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
Successful Art Show
On Wednesday for the final day of class I had an art show/gallery/party for my students. The show went very well with many friends and teachers in attendance. We played some games and listened to music and the students did a great job decorating and preparing for the event. They had all of their drawings from class neatly displayed on easels located in a big u shape around the room. It was a good ending to my third class. On Monday I start a new class on color theory.
One of my students knitted me a scarf, another gave me a chinese chess set, one gave me a traditional fan with Beijing opera characters on it, and I got many apples and nice notes from the students. I guess giving a teacher an apple is an international sign of respect.
One of my students knitted me a scarf, another gave me a chinese chess set, one gave me a traditional fan with Beijing opera characters on it, and I got many apples and nice notes from the students. I guess giving a teacher an apple is an international sign of respect.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Dinner with the Big Wigs
tonight we gave a speech on western art teaching methods to some students and the big wigs of the art college here at xiangfan university. it went quite swell, as they want to learn new teaching methods to teach their students in order to keep up with the modern world. after presentations, they took us out to dinner at the fancy hotel on campus and it was all chyeah everything. this is the last week of my current class. On wednesday i'm having an art gallery/art show/party for my students. I've told them all to invite whoever they want and bring food/drinks. It's gonna be awesome to introduce them to their first gallery experience and hopefully inspire them to work hard on their art.....chyeah
Monday, November 15, 2010
Chinese Movie Theater and other Random, Motley Assortment of Things/Stuff/Heh
So we went to see Avatar in theaters yesterday. Our Chinese teacher had free tickets and invited us so that was real nice of her but the place was pretty ghetto to be honest. First off, they played the movie off of a computer onto a projector, second there were seeds all over the floor, thirdly the kids would not be quiet the whole movie, as I am coming to realize in class as well, the movie was dubbed in Chinese, and lastly they turned on the lights and everyone started leaving about 3 minutes before the film had ended.....China.....
Class is going ok, this class is more of a handful than the last. I thought this was the last week of it but turns out there is one more week so I need to plan three more lessons this week.
This past weekend was pretty fun but the weather was crazy. Friday was like summer, Saturday was like fall or spring, and Sunday was definitely like winter, cold and lots of rain....last Thursday was singles day in China because it was 11/11/2010, tal the 1's meaning single so the girls apparently eat a type of food to help them get a boyfriend or something. That night we went out to the club which was packed but was a pretty normal night. I met this girl but she didn't speak a lik of English so that complicates things...oh well.....China.....
Got a few of those foot massages this past weekend, their pretty money but my neck is still crackin like a whip....maybe I need some tin-man oil or something, I dont know
My turtle Kobe passed away damnit.....I had just bought him a water heater too and got a new tank for free. I'm not sure what happened but probably a lot things. They weren't cared for well from the start, seeing as how we bought them off this pet seller dude on the street who had a cage full of chipmunks (i dont even know how to spell that), cages full or birds, squirrels, who knows what else....probably alligators and egyptian parrots or something. They probably had been sick from the beginning, there was something up with one of their eyes, the internet says can be related to stress from overcrowding. Oh well, I buried him proper and had to move on.
I had a dream I was teaching Kobe Bryant Chinese through a glass window and that I was playing for the Lakers I think....What? Then later on I had a dream that I was the father of a baby boy....double WHAT? I was sure glad when I woke up from that dream.......I be havin weird dreams all the time here, I don't whats the cause.....any ideas?
Tomorrow I'm supposed to go check out some 'motorcycle master' or so he says or something with the dude from the previous post. Should be interesting but you never know what your gonna get in......China.....
Class is going ok, this class is more of a handful than the last. I thought this was the last week of it but turns out there is one more week so I need to plan three more lessons this week.
This past weekend was pretty fun but the weather was crazy. Friday was like summer, Saturday was like fall or spring, and Sunday was definitely like winter, cold and lots of rain....last Thursday was singles day in China because it was 11/11/2010, tal the 1's meaning single so the girls apparently eat a type of food to help them get a boyfriend or something. That night we went out to the club which was packed but was a pretty normal night. I met this girl but she didn't speak a lik of English so that complicates things...oh well.....China.....
Got a few of those foot massages this past weekend, their pretty money but my neck is still crackin like a whip....maybe I need some tin-man oil or something, I dont know
My turtle Kobe passed away damnit.....I had just bought him a water heater too and got a new tank for free. I'm not sure what happened but probably a lot things. They weren't cared for well from the start, seeing as how we bought them off this pet seller dude on the street who had a cage full of chipmunks (i dont even know how to spell that), cages full or birds, squirrels, who knows what else....probably alligators and egyptian parrots or something. They probably had been sick from the beginning, there was something up with one of their eyes, the internet says can be related to stress from overcrowding. Oh well, I buried him proper and had to move on.
I had a dream I was teaching Kobe Bryant Chinese through a glass window and that I was playing for the Lakers I think....What? Then later on I had a dream that I was the father of a baby boy....double WHAT? I was sure glad when I woke up from that dream.......I be havin weird dreams all the time here, I don't whats the cause.....any ideas?
Tomorrow I'm supposed to go check out some 'motorcycle master' or so he says or something with the dude from the previous post. Should be interesting but you never know what your gonna get in......China.....
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Motorcycles and What-Not
I've seen two motorcycle crashes the past three days. On Sunday this lady crashed her scooter on a busy road by losing balance or getting cut-off or something. She was shaken up but ok...I helped her pick up her scooter. Then today, while doubling up on the back of this guys motorbike (and no it's not weird as western culture views it, it's the normal in China to see 3 or 4 people on a motorcycle) ironically enough I saw another accident, a bad one. A guy was laying limp on the ground and got stretchered off into an ambulance with his bike laying on the ground. It was a pretty bad scene. As I saw this I was thinking, maybe this is a sign I should get off the bike. He was whipping around campus pretty fast though in and out of students with headlights periodically switched on and off, also a norm in China. It was fun though and didn't get in an accident. Probably won't be doing that too much....
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Weekend Rap-up
This was a good weekend of exploring. On Friday we hit up a dvd store, and got a bootlegged copy of Avatar which is a visually amazing movie. On Friday night we helped our friend Bruce with an English corner and talked with the students and played some games and music.
Saturday we went to the weekend market and also the rock market. For about a week this rock market came to town with all these intricately carved rocks, gems, and wooden sculptures. The detail is extraordinary. At the market I got a water heater for Kobe, he wasn't doing so well but seems to be doing better. At the market there was an art auction if you will for painted scrolls/tapestries. Bootlegged or not, they are amazing paintings. I picked up a painting of a Chinese waterfall with trees, cliffs, and traditional homes at the bottom. It looks good hanging up in my bedroom.
From there we went to get foot massages, a first for all of us. They put your feet in hot water with tea bags and let your feet soak. Then they wash your feet and scrape off all the dead skin and cut your toe-nails. Then they give your whole feet and lower legs a massage and end with a back and neck massage. It's awesome, quite relaxing. They also have a sauna if you wish, Raf the English bloke turned up his sauna to 70 celsius which is like 150 degrees or something....yeah, they were not happy with him.
Today we hit up the World War 2 monument in town and the daoist temple overlooking Xiangfan and then went to get some Chinese bbq in the city, potatoes, garlic bread, chow mein, and mushrooms and chicken/pork on skewers.
Saturday we went to the weekend market and also the rock market. For about a week this rock market came to town with all these intricately carved rocks, gems, and wooden sculptures. The detail is extraordinary. At the market I got a water heater for Kobe, he wasn't doing so well but seems to be doing better. At the market there was an art auction if you will for painted scrolls/tapestries. Bootlegged or not, they are amazing paintings. I picked up a painting of a Chinese waterfall with trees, cliffs, and traditional homes at the bottom. It looks good hanging up in my bedroom.
From there we went to get foot massages, a first for all of us. They put your feet in hot water with tea bags and let your feet soak. Then they wash your feet and scrape off all the dead skin and cut your toe-nails. Then they give your whole feet and lower legs a massage and end with a back and neck massage. It's awesome, quite relaxing. They also have a sauna if you wish, Raf the English bloke turned up his sauna to 70 celsius which is like 150 degrees or something....yeah, they were not happy with him.
Today we hit up the World War 2 monument in town and the daoist temple overlooking Xiangfan and then went to get some Chinese bbq in the city, potatoes, garlic bread, chow mein, and mushrooms and chicken/pork on skewers.
Monday, November 1, 2010
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