Tasty Bargain in Chengdu

Ikea has an amazing bargain which I wish I had known about over the past three years.  We often have to come to Chengdu for different trainings so knowing about this little gem of a bargain would have been useful.

 

What is the bargain?

 

1.  If you fill out the paperwork, you can get a free Ikea Family card.  With this card, you can receive a FREE bottomless cup of real coffee every day except on weekends.

2.  Between 2-5 pm on weekdays Ikea has happy hour where various items are marked at half price.  For example, a plate of 10 meatballs, mashed potatoes and gravy usually costs 15 RMB ($2.35), but during happy hour, this wonderful plate of yumminess costs only 7 RMB about the same price as rice covered with a Chinese dish at your local hole in the wall.

3.  Ikea has FREE wi-fi.

 

How does one get to Ikea?

 

From Sichuan University, take bus 76 going west (away from the university).  The closest bus stop is across the street from McDonald's.  When the bus has passed through an underpass, you are getting close.  Wait one more stop and get off at the supermarket Auchan (full of cheaper western food than Sabrina's).  Ikea is behind the Galleria and Auchan.

 

Take the Metro and get off at the South Railway Station stop.

New Life: Moving to Chengdu

Moving to Chengdu   I've been a volunteer for five years, so why in the world would I want to remain an additional year?  In Chengdu, there are higher playing jobs!  Instead of a 1,500 RMB living allowance, having to budget and resist temptation, I could be making 6,000-10,000 RMB living a comfortable life, mixing a local Chinese lifestyle with a Western one.  It doesn't make sense to be a PCV for only one year in Chengdu.  In my opinion, one year isn't enough time to build community and start secondary projects.  The reason I stayed in Peace Corps for one more year was to get exposure to the Peace Corps office and to see how thing are run from a Peace Corps staff's point of view, a type of internship to broaden my skills.   There is a hiccup to my plans though.  Originally the PCV leader position was going to be a part-time teaching job then work in the office twice a week.  Due to complications, there is no longer a PCVL position and now I have to be a regular PCV with a full time teaching load.   My Host Family   I had a great four day homestay with my Chinese host family.  I stayed with a newly wed couple where the wife is a teacher at my new college.  We lived in a new flat, beautifully decorated with wood floors in an apartment complex that had an outdoor swimming pool.  I slept in the only bedroom while the couple went to the building next door and stayed with the husband's family.    The mother-in-law cooked us three delicious meals.  Sichuan food is absolutely amazing!  There is such a variety of vegetables and flavor.  Plus the father-in-law loves meat.    We drove everywhere, but I kept a mental check on the bus lines so I'd know how to get places on my own.  The teacher took me to see Harry Potter in 3D and we drank tea and played Mahjong for a whole afternoon before having hot pot while watching a Sichuan opera show.  It was an enjoyable host stay, chill, relaxing, plenty of time for myself, and extremely informative about Chengdu's local customs.   My New Flat   It is HUGE!  The living room feels like a classroom that can fit 20 desks except the room is completely empty except for a telephone and a black leather couch.  The dining area is empty except for a fridge.  The kitchen is well stocked with a microwave, stove, and dish drying machine.  The washing machine is high tech.  Push one button and it automatically runs through four cycles compared to my old machine which was more manual.    The bedroom has a closet, two desks, and two twin beds and an air conditioner.  It is a smaller room than the living room making it easier to cool and to heat.  It is where I'll live.   The bathroom has a bathtub and I am not too excited about having to keep the grim clean.  The college provided a computer but there is no Internet so it is hard to have an online presence.  I am back to handwriting letters and blogs posting them whenever I visit the PC office.   My New Neighborhood   My college is in the middle of office buildings with a few restaurants, the cheap 6 RMB meals mixed with the fancier 30 RMB meals.  Then after a 10 minute walk, I am in suburbia America with its Ikea parking lots, Auchan (French supermarket), and an upscale shopping mall with a movie theater whose tickets are 120 RMB, a Subway, KFC, Pizza Hut, a Tex-Mex restaurant, and Starbucks.  Then if you continue walking for another 10 minutes, there is a more typical Chinese neighborhood with tea houses, massage places, barber shops, a farmer's market, parks with people dancing, doing Tai Qi, and playing with their grandchildren.  Mixed in with this local color is the upscale imported Western food supermarkets of Sabrina's and Carrefour.  My old sitemate described it perfectly, "Best of both worlds."   My New Lifestyle   It took a couple of weeks to adjust to the big city, but finally I'm enjoying it!  I grab a 6:30 am bus and after 20 minutes arrive at the West gate of Sichuan University and then walk 20 minutes to the office.  I work for a day by helping PC staff and by helping with various sessions of PST like a PCV panel or helping the trainees with their semester course plans for the start of school.  At around 6 pm I leave the office and head home to crash.  Rush hour traffic is heavy but on a bus with AC it isn't too annoying.   It is exciting being in a bigger city, exploring neighborhoods feeling less isolated mentally and physically compared to traditional Gansu.  I am excited to explore the things that I've missed for the past 5 years- concerts, shows, films, an international community.  Being in a bigger city I am often not initially assumed to be Chinese.  During a morning run, I overheard construction workers say, "Hua ren," meaning a person with Chinese heritage but not necessarily a citizen of China.  When getting ID photos taken, the photographer asked, "Japanese or Korean?"  It is nice to feel part of a more international city that is exposed to diversity.   I am even enjoying the heat of humid Chengdu.  It reminds me of Africa as I sleep on a bamboo mat cooler than cotton sheets.  Compared to brown Gansu, it reminds me of Alabama, the smell of grass and trees.  Having a fridge, a fan, and running water makes life so much more comfortable than living on the dirt porch under a straw roof in Burkina.  China makes the heat nostalgic and more bearable.   Processing and Adapting   My initial reaction to Chengdu was culture shock... I left America to live a different lifestyle in a different culture, but in Chengdu I was thrown right back into Western food and stores.  After some time, some processing, some psychological adjustment to the idea, my reactions shifted and in the place of resistance, acceptance started slowly forming.  I realized that this is where I am stuck, so try to focus on the things I like about the place.  Accept the idea that Ikea will be my neighborhood coffee shop instead of resisting and hating the idea.    Am I too flexible?  Not having my own values, ideals, and type of lifestyle to hang onto?  Maybe after five years abroad, I have learned that the only way to be happy is to adapt and accept whatever I am given.  Instead of focusing on the things I don't like, try to find the pleasures in whatever environment I am living.

First Impression of my New Neighborhood

On an empty Saturday, living in a hotel can be a bit boring, so I decided to scope out my new home.   My university is in a neighborhood of new wide sidewalks and streets, empty of cars and people.  The place is like a research park that only fills up from 9-6 pm then becomes a ghostville.  Luckily there is a subway entrance right outside of the front gate of the university that will take me to the back alleyways of Chengdu.  The area is actually a biking paradise with its wide streets empty of cars.  I even bet the countryside is just down the street.  Even though I am surrounded by new buildings rather than back alleyways of food, color, and Chinese flavor I am in a place where I will be able to bike and have quick subway access to markets, food and colorful sights that I love.   I feel like my new neighborhood is like Huntsville, AL or Redmond, WA.  Who would have thought I'd end up living in a research park in China?  At least I'll be able to commute safely to and from the PC office by bike and there's nothing to spend on coz the few places that do exist are too chic.

Chengdu and Thoughts about Homestay

I have moved to Chengdu, a bustling metropolitan city, big, a place I can't explore by foot in a day, a place whose neighborhoods are as big as my Gansu city.  For me Chengdu, has always been a vacation spot, the place you go for Peace Corps trainings, a place where you might spend 10 times more than what you usually spend for a meal since it's a special occasion.  You're getting per diem, and it's only a few times a year that your tongue can have the special treat of raw fish, hummus, bacon, and a bottomless cup of Joe.    Now though I've become a resident.    Instead of an African village with once a week transport out on dirt roads or a small Chinese city with a population of over 200,000, I am in a city of millions.  I am in a city with a diversity of international food, entertainment, people, and places.  There's even rugby; however, unlike Seattle where I had enough to spend freely to feed my desire for film, theater, and food, I now must be careful with my money and resist temptation.  Will I have the self-control to face what every volunteer encounters when living in an expensive city?   Cities are exciting and can be cheap.  Biking, buses, a subway, and eating out can all be inexpensive.  Exploring the streets, and going to free concerts and tiny restaurants will be fun.  Finding bike routes out of the city will be great.   Currently I am living in a hotel.  My flat isn't ready yet.  Monday I will be moving in with a host family for a week just like all the other PC trainees who will be on site visit.   When the idea of having trainees live with host families during site visits was being discussed by the training staff, I would often discuss with other PCVs the pros and cons of having a temporary host family in the city you'd be working in for two years.  The biggest disadvantages were   -being used as the foreign face to be shown off to the community -being requested to teach English -having a forced relationship in a new community with people whom you might not get along with and who might be hard to avoid -having work and social boundaries blurred as you might live with a counterpart, a colleague, or a boss   These challenges can be a bit daunting if you haven't figured out how to cope with China yet, like how to tell white lies, how to indirectly say no, how to smile to create harmonious relationships and how to feel at peace with the extremely long social obligations of a single day when you would prefer some privacy and alone time.  A homestay though is a perfect opportunity to learn about Chinese culture and the local community.  Also, it is a time to grow and evolve into a person who knows how to meet one's own needs and desires as well as learn how to implement boundaries in culturally appropriate ways.   As a veteran volunteer, even though I'm fully aware of all the potential frustrations of living with a host family, I am super excited about living with a Chinese family.  Why?   -I can improve my Chinese. -I can learn about the school, the neighborhood, the people, the pockets of activity and the local customs. -I can start forming relationships, guanxi, a network of people with whom I can exchange favors. -I can learn so much by living with a host family like finding the best ways to get my needs and desires met like a new mobile phone number, names of local dishes, a massage place, a place to take martial arts, buy a bike, bus routes, and where to buy yarn.   I like being independent and like feeling successful when I have accomplished something on my own; however, even though I've lived in China for three years and one could assume I can speak a bit of Chinese and can do things by myself, it is still a lot easier and more efficient when community members are helping me.  Most of the time people are happy to help.  At least in theory, when community members are happy, the whole community benefits from the harmony created by helping each other.  (*wink*  Theory and practice don't always match.  I have had plenty of frustrating moments trying to navigate Chinese culture and relationships while trying to keep the well-being of the community harmonious and peaceful.)

The Net has been Down

or so I thought... 

 

Tonight I learned that there is a new system.  We are suppose to delete the IP address and voila we are automatically online.  I spent several days just waiting coz the net often goes offline.  I just waited thinking the big mysterious problem with the net would be fixed by the computer people.  It never occurred to me that I could fix it myself. 

 

How I have changed living abroad...  Instead of feeling like I can control the things in my life, I just wait and wait and wait.  Weird.  Five years ago, I'd probably have called someone right away if my Internet wasn't working, but now? 

 

I waited for seven days and just by random chance learned how to fix it. 

At tonight's going away banquet, I asked the other foreign teachers, "Hey has your net been down?" 

They said, "Nah, a teacher came and deleted the IP address.  Now it works." 

I thought, "Oh."

 

Now that I have the net back, I'll be offline for a while.  Going on vacation.  I will be checking out Inner Mongolia.

Two Types of Relationships

I think I can categorize the types of relationships I have been in into two categories:

 

The first is relationships where I was the one in love.  The second is relationships where I enjoyed having the attention of someone who was in love. 

 

Both have their advantages and disadvantages. 

 

I like being in love.  It feels good and is inspiring, my creativity exploding into artwork, letters, and projects; however, even though I am in love, I've never taken the vow to be with that person wherever they go.  I tend to follow my own heart of adventure rather than theirs.  Maybe being in love with my own dreams is my priority rather than following a person I'm in love with.

 

I enjoy having the attention of someone who likes me.  It feels good to be liked, makes the missing holes in my self-esteem feel a little less empty.  The problem with these types of relationships is I start disliking the person and somehow have less of a tolerance for their imperfections.

 

There is a third category that is quite common in China, relationships based on responsibility. 

 

In all of my relationships as they become more serious, as the weeks turn into years, my mind does start making lists about compatibility but my relationships are never about responsibility. 

 

Compatibility?  Like do we challenge each other with our topics of conversation, do we learn from each other, do we spend money the same way, do we handle conflict in a positive way. 

 

Responsibility?  My students often debate whether or not they should marry for love or for responsibility.  They come to the conclusion that responsibility is the most important.  There is a responsibility toward their parents, having their parents' approval and making their parents happy with grandchildren.  For women there is a responsibility to choose someone who will provide a good standard of living so that their future children can have an easy life.  A woman searches for a partner with a good job and an already purchased apartment.  For a man, he has the responsibility to have a good job and an apartment before searching for a wife. 

 

Two people find each other, look at the stats and boom are married after knowing each other anywhere from 2 months to a year.  The people I know who are married got married fast once they determined it was a good responsible match and approved by their parents.  They probably will never get divorced because responsibility is the most important even if their mate is cheating on them.  It is better and more responsible to be married than single in the eyes of many Chinese women.

 

A relationship based on responsibility, on children, on having an apartment, and a good job?  I don't need these things in a relationship.  I depend on myself for my standard of living and lifestyle.  I have the freedom and education not to be dependent on a mate.  I am lucky.

 

If I had to choose which category of relationship I would prefer?  I think it be great to have a partner whom I am in love with and who likes me back.  An added bonus would be that we are compatible in the things we value.

Lazy Days

Last Friday, I finished with my school duties and finished all of the goodbyes with students.  This week they are in the middle of finals too busy to say goodbye so it was good to finish those before their exams.  These days though every single day I have been having goodbye lunches and dinners with teachers and leaders.   

 

Through this four week process of saying goodbye to various people by having dinners, picnics, and hikes, I have learned that it isn't really about the goodbye and focusing on the thoughts that we probably will never see each other again, but it is more about spending one last moment with people, cherishing a laugh and a smile, sharing stories and food.  We never say goodbye even though it lurks in the shadows.  Instead, we are just saying, I like you and want to spend time with you.  Thank you for that.

 

I've been enjoying these lazy days of knitting funky red and purple socks, reading books, watching movies, slapping at mosquitoes, and cooking peach covered yogurt pancakes, using yogurt and baking soda to substitute for baking powder.

 

What no bike rides?  Yeah yeah...  I gave my smaller bike to my new sitemate who then let a student borrow it for the summer.  Caitlin gave her bike to a teacher, but the teacher has been studying in Xi'an.  I borrowed this bike for a year, and it was time to give it back.  I am without wheels and instead walked an hour to new campus.  I really dislike buses. 

 

My rice bags are packed.  I don't like that I have huge bags, more stuff than what I flew with to China, but what can one do?  When I came to China three years ago, I brought one fleece.  Now I have 2 homemade sweaters and a jacket, and several heavy pants.  Plus several Peace Corps books I forgot to return to the office during COS conference.

 

When am I leaving?  No idea!  I wanted to leave this weekend or sooner, like I could leave right now.  I am finished with my school duties and am packed and ready to go having finished all of my goodbyes.  What am I waiting for?  The official Chinese paperwork has not been signed nor submitted for my new volunteer position, so I am waiting for that approval before I can go.  It sort of feels like standfast in Guinea where I had to bike every day to a radio to find out if we were evacuating.  You spend day to day packed and ready to go, but not sure when.  Then one day boom, you get the message and it is time to leave. 

 

From the very first Peace Corps country I served in, I have been the learning the lesson that you can't control the events in your life.  Instead you just wait patiently and eventually something happens.  It all works out in the end.

Sock it to me, China

If you have been following my blog, then you probably know how much stress, effort, and overtime, we have been putting into moving the Tree House, re-modeling the classroom into a library, and organizing it.  Last night guess what I learned....

 

This summer the Tree House has to be moved again, to a new classroom.

 

It is unbelievable!!!!  All those volunteer hours wasted.

Wednesday Final Finals

At 2:40 on Wednesday afternoon my two writing classes took their two hour final.  At midnight, I was finished with grading, calculating their final scores, writing the key, and filling out the statistic report.  I am practically done with my school responsibilities.  I just have to turn in all the exams on Friday, get the waiban office to sign some papers, have an English department farewell dinner and then will I be free?

 

Today we will have a women's group party.  I will cook pancakes.  Not sure what the students will cook.

 

A quick word about cheating:

 

On the national university English exam for all majors which happened a couple of weeks ago, my English students told me a story where an English student wrote an essay for a student who was in the classroom taking the exam.  The English major sent the essay via text by cell phone.  Cell phone?  It is incredible that teachers let students have a cell phone during a national exam.  Cell phones have dictionaries and well apparently you can send a full essay via cell phone.  It is crazy coz the teacher took the phone away from the student, but then the student begged for it back, "I am a volunteer for the red sports meet.  I need my phone."  What?  Crazy!

 

In my class I told the students to put their cell phones away.  I did NOT want to see a cell phone anywhere near them.  One student quickly checked her phone twice claiming that she was only checking the time.  I took it away, and she almost cried afraid that I'd fail her thinking that she was cheating.  I didn't fail her coz I don't know, maybe she was only checking the time.  I just took it away to ease my mind that she couldn't use it anymore to look up anything if that was what she was doing.

 

During other final exams, I heard that the teachers just left the classroom for an hour or so while the students were taking their exam.  Oh well...  What can one do?

Goodbye Hike: Picture 3

We walked down a wide dirt road that was probably used by tractors to transport bricks because towards the end of the hike, we found an abandoned brick factory.  At the bottom of the valley a wide stream kept us from hiking further.  In this picture, you can see the tall dark green grass that was hiding the two meter wide stream of brown water.  Tall grass plus water, I wasn't willing to risk trying to forge this tiny stream with a bunch of students.  Snakes like tall grass and water right? 

 

It was a fantastic five hour outing, hiking the dust bowl of Gansu, having a picnic under apricot trees and just chilling in a relaxed way with happy students who were exhausted by the end of an easy but long hike.  Plus I was super proud of them as they all collected their trash and hiked it out.

Goodbye Hike: Picture 2

Here is a picture of the edge of the plateau that took us an hour to walk to.  Gansu unlike other areas of China is brown; however, in the summer it does get greener.  We don't have waterfalls nor lush dark green wet landscapes.  We do have apricot trees growing wild everywhere as the government tries to fight deforestation where the the earth could turn into even a more dry wasteland.  It took us forever to hike to the bottom because everyone was stopping to eat sour apricots.

Goodbye hike: Picture 1

As a person who loves the outdoors, for the past three years, I have explored the countryside and the valleys.  My city is on a very large plateau and if you want to get to the edge of it to hike you have to ride a bike for an hour or so.  This is why I have never hiked the hills with my students nor started a hiking club because very few of the students have bikes.

 

The old campus though moved to the new campus which is in the countryside, so several weeks ago, we went on a goodbye hike.  About 30 students met at the Tree House and walked on the flat pavement that cuts its way through farmland, wheat growing everywhere.  It took us an hour to finally reach an edge of the plateau.  It was good to be out under the sunshine and cool breeze.  The students were excited to be doing something different.

New Tailor Made Sundress

Goodbye Picnics

I've been having a string of goodbye picnics with my freshmen and sophomores.  We eat snacks and watermelon.  We take pictures, play games, and sing songs.  It is a fun uplifting way to say goodbye.

Sunday

I spent the morning doing laundry and knitting a sock while watching old movies like The Quiller Memorandum.  Then I went out to buy a present for a woman who has a painful time during her period.  It was a period survival kit.  In China, there are interesting rules that surround one's period like no showers, no cold water, no eating cold things.  Suggested by the students, we bought a hot water bottle that uses electricity to heat it, special red sugar that is suppose to replenish one's nutrients, medicine stickers that you place on your belly, and pads.  We wanted to buy chocolate but students said, "Women don't eat chocolate when they are on their periods."  I thought, "What a pity."

 

Then I showed my sitemate a barber shop that another foreign woman used to frequent.  It is a bit scary getting one's hair cut and styled in China if your hair isn't black and thick.  The hairstyles are just very different in China than in America.  We also tried a new ice cream shop that opened near East Lake Park and painted our fingernails as we waited for french fries and an ice cream platter made to look like a garden.

 

In the afternoon I watched, The French Connection, which I thought was kind of boring.

 

In the evening I ventured out into the cold rain to go shopping for dinner.  I cooked a delicious cream of leek, potato, and chicken soup.  I sometimes forget how good western food is.

 

It was a real pleasant Sunday.  Some days I just need a full day away from students. 

 

Tomorrow there are rumors that because it rained today there will be no class in the morning.  Instead of having a goodbye picnic with my morning sophomore students, they will have to re-do the Tai Ji performance to be recorded for TV.

A Saturday

Today was a lazy Saturday.  I went for a 40 minute neck and upper back $4 massage, then picked up my newly tailored made dark blue with white flowers sundress, got a $3 haircut, tried a new noodle restaurant, and watched Avatar for the first time.  I liked the first half with the exploration of a world and a new culture.  I thought the second half was pretty boring, a stereotypical Hollywood battle.  I am though interested in going to our local 3D theater of 20 seats and seeing if they will show it.

 

In the afternoon I went to the red sports meet rehearsal since it was free to all spectators.  Tomorrow people will have to have an expensive ticket.  It was boring so I left early.  Early meaning I stayed for 2.5 hours but only got to see like the first 15 minutes of the performances before deciding it was too boring.  The rehearsal did not start on time nor was it very organized, so there was a lot of waiting.  Why was it boring?  There was a 100 person choir that was singing but all we could hear was the tape of recorded singers.  While they were singing, students arranged themselves into different formations like the map of China or human statues documenting the triumph of Chinese soldiers.  Then they started doing a dance that reminded me of the types of Chinese dances seen in the movie Mao's Last Dancer.

 

Then I stopped at a coffee shop and had three scoops of ice cream before heading to a hot pot restaurant.  My sitemate and I spent three hours eating and chatting with two English teachers.

 

Now it is bedtime.

Another Friday

Today I was ready for a day mostly alone, alone time to clean up the apartment, pack, get a haircut, watch a movie, read, and write.  Instead a student called at 10 am and wanted to have lunch.  Then at 3 pm there was a singing competition where each department's students and teachers formed a choir to sing red songs.  While sitting on a 2 ft high plastic stool, under an umbrella blocking the bright sun, I listened to ten of the twenty performances awed at the sheer numbers of people singing and watching.  Then it was the last night in the Tree House, a sad goodbye to three years of being part of a community that taught me so much about China.

 

Lately I've been eating the same meal over and over again.  Students learned that I like fish so they invite me to goodbye dinners with soups, stews, and plates of boiled, stewed, and fried fish.  With my sitemate, we have been eating a lot of hot pot.  I love hot pot because I can mix my own sesame dipping sauce at the sauce buffet. 

 

Tonight though we had a very different meal.  If we want something new, we usually go to a more expensive Chinese restaurant that has a picture menu.  We ordered two dishes. The first one was raw leafy lettuce served with a super yummy peanut sauce that contained thinly sliced red hot chili peppers.  The second dish was a variety plate of steamed and boiled vegetables- potatoes, taro, corn, salted peanuts, and edamame.

A Thursday

Usually I ride my bike to school, but today I took the 7:20 am school bus because I had three large bags of clothes that a student was going to help me find someone to donate them to.  Unlike America, in China, people do not like used clothes, so it is a delicate matter on how to get rid of good clothes without throwing them away in the rubbish bin.

 

Today, surprisingly there wasn't any Tai Qi practice, so at 8 am I listened to 26 freshmen finals, two minute advertising presentations for face cream, bags, bracelets, basketballs, and more. 

 

At 10 am, I had a picnic with my sophomore writing class, a class I have been with for four terms.  It was sad and I mistakenly taught a sad song during the picnic.  Last semester my juniors loved this song, but umm... teaching it during a goodbye picnic wasn't so smart.  The song was "Love is Blue," with the lyrics, "Blue blue, my world is blue.  Blue is my world now I'm without you.  Gray gray, my life is gray.  Cold is my heart since you went away."  The picnic was like Halloween where everyone was taking pictures and exchanging snacks filling their goody bags with crackers, marshmallows, cookies, chips, tofu, sunflower seeds, candy, and chewing gum.  I bought a watermelon for $3 to feed 30 students.

 

At 11:45 am, I took my used clothes to a dorm mother who would take my clothes and redistribute them to people who might want them.

 

At noon, we had a women's club lunch where the student led topic was "Fears plus Mental and Physical Safety."

 

Then I knit for a while before Tree House opened.  Tree House workers mopped and dusted since the Tree House's closing date is tomorrow.  A bunch of new students came to check out books for the summer.  Students who participated in the photo workshop brought their self-portraits and texts to put into the Tree House yearbook.

 

The theme of the day was "I don't know."

 

Do you know when the writing final will be?

I don't know.

Well I hope we learn about it soon coz the students need to know so they can start seriously studying.  Their final is tough.

 

So when can we have the women's club cooking party?

We don't know. 

Well what is your schedule like next week?

We don't know.  No one has told us yet.

 

Is the red songs singing performance tomorrow?

Yes.

When?

I don't know.  I will text you when the leaders tell me.

 

Will we have the Tree House meeting tomorrow?

I don't know.  Do you have Tai Qi dress rehearsal?

I think so.

When?

I don't know.  I will text you when the leaders tell me.

 

At 6:30 pm, I had a fish dinner with two graduating seniors and their family members who had come to help move them back home.

Unpredictable China 2

I tried to predict China to control my future, to make a schedule, but China gently slapped me on the wrist and said, "You can't do that."   If you want to know what is going on, you have to ask students a lot of questions to discover any rumors that anyone might have heard.  You have to visit the office and teacher lounge to make small talk with office workers and teachers.  You have to observe how China works because even though it is unpredictable there is a predictability about the unpredictable or I thought there was.   The English department has been practicing a fan Tai Qi performance for months now and performed it for the sports meet last month.  Before the performance, one day of class was canceled for the dress rehearsal.  They have a second performance this weekend.   Because I knew about the unpredictability of China, I canceled my 10 minute oral interview final exams.  I had no idea when the students would or would not have class.  If they missed a day I would have 360 minutes/6 hours/20-30 students to reschedule which would be a nightmare!  I changed the final to be a 2 minute performance where each class could be done in two hours.   I assumed that because last time, class was canceled the day before the final performance, that would be how it would work this time.  The performance is on Sunday, so I assumed that Friday classes would be canceled.  I moved the two Friday finals to earlier in the week.  I thought, "Yeah!  I  predicted unpredictable China."   Nope!  I was wrong.  This time 4 days of classes have been canceled.  Because only two classes have been able to take their finals, I now have to make-up 3 finals.  This past Monday we had class.  All other days?  No class.   China gently reminded me that humans have no control.  It is fate's playground.

Unpredictable China

Yesterday I heard rumors that Tuesday's morning classes had been cancelled because all freshmen and sophomores had to attend the graduation ceremony.  I went to the office to verify this rumor, but the office workers just said, "You have class  on Tuesday."  I felt a sense of relief since I had freshmen oral English final exams on Tuesday.

 

Today as I was preparing to carry my bike downstairs to ride to new campus in the rain, I got a phone call from the monitor of my Tuesday's class, "Jennifer, we don't have class today.  We have to go to a meeting." 

 

"Okay.  Well your final will be next Tuesday then."

 

Americans often feel like we have some control over our lives and futures.  We have many choices.  After graduating from high school, we can choose our university, then our major, then our career.  We can even change careers. We plan and organize weeks in advance and feel certain that very few things will disrupt our schedules.  We feel like hard work will lead to the successful realization of dreams and plans.

 

In China, everything is unpredictable and fate predicts and controls one's life and future.  Exam scores dictate your future, dictate if you go to university, which one university might accept you, which major you can try for.  Once those things have been set it is nearly impossible to change or to go after your true dreams.  

 

My students have a sense of hopelessness.  I don't want to be a teacher, but there is nothing I can do about it.  I want to take my final exam today, but I have to go to the graduation ceremony.  I don't want to be in the Tai Qi performance but if I don't show up for practice I will be fined money.  I want to marry my boyfriend/girlfriend, but I must obey my parents' wishes.  The only predictable thing in China is that some outside force will control your plans and future.