Picture Update: Too poor to go to Lhasa?

then why not journey through the Tibetan Plateau of Western Sichuan and experience numerous distinctive varied landscapes, architecture and people.




Top: Tiger Leaping Gorge, Shangrila Middle: Bai Shuai Tai, Shangrila Bottom: Xiang Cheng, Litang

During the winter this trip is not for the faint of heart, the cleanliness of hands, or for those who thrive in luxury. If you can answer yes to the following questions, then maybe Li Jiang to Shangri-La, to Xiang Cheng, to Li Tang, to Kangding ending in Chengdu might be for you.

• Are you an outdoor adventurous type who likes camping and hiking?
• Can you sit in the sun doing nothing but watch as time passes and the clouds move instead of going to tourist sites?
• Do you enjoy watching landscapes go by through windows?
• Can you endure 8-12 hour bus rides on rocky dirt roads while going through passes anywhere from 8-14,000 ft high?
• Can you breathe in smoke with music blaring full blast while your toes feel the beginning onset of frostbite while wedged into whatever is fixed to the bus so you don't bump your head or go flying all over the place as you travel on dirt rocky roads?
• Can you deal with altitude and too much sun headaches?
• Can you face extreme poverty traveling through mining towns and undeveloped towns?
• Can you enjoy simple expensive meals that aren't anything special?
• Can you return a friendly smile to 100 shouted OKAYS and HELLOS and not start fights with girls who while walking down the street pinch you?
• Do you mind sleeping in psychedelic colorfully painted rooms of yaks, rabbits, landscapes, horses, and birds or in decrepit falling apart smelly rooms?
• Can you sleep through yappy dogs who never lose their barks?
• Can you sleep through an unknown rabid animal scratching through the wooden panel walls of your bedroom digging and digging to scurry across your bed and jump on your face?
• Can you use squatters that are the grossest things imaginable and only get worse as you travel to more and more remote areas, balancing on two feeble looking rotten wooden planks over a pit of waste touching shoulders with the neighbor beside you praying that you aren't overweight for the wood holding you inches above doom?
• Can you go a week without bathing and sleeping on probably dirty sheets? A lack of running water, a lack of heated water, and below freezing temperatures were not ideal conditions for showers or doing laundry.
• Can you deal with the possibility of head lice?
• Do you have the patience and ingenuity to communicate and find solutions for unpredictable bus schedules where transport in and out stop running because of Chinese New Year?

If these questions don't stop you from wanting to wander through Western Sichuan, then continue on....

Li Jiang (altitude 8,000 ft)

Transport from Chengdu: 2 hr plane ride (420 RMB)
Stayed at Mamma Naxi who picked us up from the airport for 50 RMB per car

Best memories:

• Walking around the old town, getting lost to find our way again. Travel tip: To find one's way, one must get lost first.
• Watching Naxi women dance in the square.
• Sitting in a cafe terrace up on a hill drinking puar tea overlooking the rooftops of the old town
• Buying blue dyed fabric for 25 RMB per sheet reminiscent of the hand dyed blue fabrics in Guinea (In Xian, I heard that if you buy a lot could have gotten it for 20 RMB.)

Shangri-La (altitude 10,000 ft)
Transport from Li Jiang: 4 hr bus (59 RMB)

Stayed first at Old Town Youth Hostel but it was freezing cold and had no public sitting area or free Internet. Then went to Barley Hostel whose rooms were a lot warmer and had a warm sitting area, very hip hostel.

Best memories:

• Very few foreigners, empty city
• Lots of walking up hills to see temples and Tibetan shrines
• With about 10 people helped turn a HUGE 4-story tall prayer wheel
• Knitting outside at a monastery in the daytime sun (nights were really COLD!)

Tiger Leaping Gorge (tallest hiked peak altitude 8, 759 ft)

Transport from Shangri-La to Jane's Hostel: 2 hr bus (23 RMB)
Transport from Sean's back to Jane's Hostel: 40 min taxi (140 RMB for 7 passenger van)
Transport from Jane's Hostel back to Shangri-la: Bus 30 RMB (stood at the crossroads waiting to wave down the bus)

Entry fee: Free because of the construction and the government not wanting to be responsible for injury. Enter the gorge at your own risk.

Stayed at Tea-horse Guesthouse

Best memories:

• Hiking in long underwear followed by a donkey over two days for about a total of 8 hours and staying at a hostel with an amazing view of the mountains
• Naxi sandwiches
• Because of the construction the road for cars is pretty bad. An exciting moment was stopping to look up at the mountain, watching the rocks slide and hitting the acceleration to out-drive the slide.
• Jane's Guesthouse food was great after the hike

Xiang Cheng (altitude 6,500 ft)

Transport from Shangri-La to Xiang Cheng: 8 hr bus (75 RMB)

Stayed at Bamu Tibetan Guesthouse which is shown in the picture. (It would be hard to find on your own. No signs indicate which Tibetan house is a guesthouse. We stood in front of the bus station and a local called the guesthouse who came and took us to the 4-story wooden house. )

Best memories:

• This city was warm during the day because of the sun and cold when the sun was hidden behind clouds. It was nice to just sit in the sun and knit.
• It was a tiny tiny town. We just enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere of doing nothing.
• Ate some great deep fried chicken legs at a shou kou place and some expensive delicious Muslim noodles.

Litang (altitude 14,000 ft)

I am out of breath. We are at a very high altitude.

Transport from Xiang Cheng to Li Tang: 4 hr mini van

Almost stranded in Xiang Cheng:
The bus station was extremely unhelpful. They continuously said that there were no buses to Li Tang. It cost 600 RMB to rent a 7 passenger van but because of the holidays it was hard to find passengers to split the cost. We should have just paid for the bus to Kangding and just gotten off at Li Tang. Instead we waited around several days then the buses to Kangding stopped running the day we wanted to go. We had to pay for a 1,400 RMB 7 passenger van to Kangding. Luckily I sat at the bus station waiting for others to realize that the buses to Kangding had stopped. I found 4 other people who were looking to go to Kangding. We hopped off at Li Tang. It was an expensive way to get there.

Stayed at Peace and Happy Hostel (not a very nice place)

Best memories:

• I feel that Litang was the most Tibetan place we had visited during the trip.
• Getting the thumbs up and smiles from the locals as we walked around a temple with about 50 other local elderly people who carried prayer beads and spun hand held prayer wheels.
• Little children invited us into their homes.
• We saw the local flavor of the place come alive as people washed their clothes in the dirty canals, as girls totted plastic water backpacks fetching water from spouts, men playing cards, and drinking yak butter tea.
• We walked to a monastery and watched an elder monk down below order younger monks who had rope tied around their chests scramble on top the eaves of a roof of a 4 story building hang banners. We watched as elementary aged monks play with a pet rat in a metal cage and as teenage monks practiced a dance. We saw monks practicing 10 feet long horns and one lone monk painting a yellow line on the performance stage.
• We hiked up the yellow barren hills surrounding the city.
• Litang was probably my favorite place.

Kangding (altitude 8,500 ft)

Transport from Litang to Kangding: 8 hour bus(85 RMB)

Stayed one night at Black Tent near Anjue Temple but the hostel closed the next day, so we moved to Dengba Hostel.

Best Memories:

• Riding up a small mountain in a cable car, reaching the top, and then realizing we still had to pay for a ticket to wander the park on top of the mountain. We sat at the ticket office not wanting to pay a ton of money to see another Chinese park. The ticket sellers had pity and gave us a reduced rate ticket.
• Drinking tea in the numerous second story tea houses.
• Finishing my sweater.

Chengdu (altitude 1,640 feet)

Transport from Kangding to Chengdu: 6 hr bus (117 RMB)

Stayed one night at the super posh Traffic Hostel but because the cheaper dorm beds had been booked moved to the Mix Hostel which had dorm beds plus free breakfast.

Best Memories:
Eating doughnuts at a new place where the line was going out the door

Xian (altitude 1,300 ft)

Transport from Chengdu to Xian: 16 hr train (201 RMB)

Stayed one night at 7 Sages and one night at Bell Tower Youth Hostel which is now my favorite hostel. Wonder why? Ask, and I'll tell.

Home (altitude 4,500 ft)

Transport from Xian to home: 4.5 hr bus (65 RMB)

Notes about Altitude

All altitudes are estimations from looking them up online.

The hardest altitude to deal with was at Shangri-La. Just walking up the inclines in that city were super difficult. By the end of the trip after about 9 days as we climbed up and down in altitude, I did not have a very difficult time in Li Tang, our highest point.

Pictures taken by Caitlin

heartbeat of Chinese babies

My senior class studied the poems about Annie's mother's pregnancy from Sharon Creech's book heartbeat.

They enjoyed the simple language that revealed the heart-felt emotions of growing up and how a family comes together to welcome a new baby.  They said that it was a good way to learn about the steps of pregnancy and what happens during the 9 months.

I learned some tidbits about pregnancy in China.

Many students agreed with the following answers to my pre-reading questions about pregnancy in China:

1.  Women don't usually publicly announce that they are pregnant to their friends.  Once they start showing then friends start guessing eventually coming to the right conclusion as the woman grows bigger and bigger.

2.  It is illegal to test for the sex of an unborn baby.

3.  Babies will sleep with the parents until they are 1-5 years old.

4.  Fathers cannot be in the hospital room while the mother is giving birth.

5.  It is very important for the mother to stay in bed at home for one month after giving birth.

Differences in thinking

Several American women responded to the survey in my blog titled Am I different because I am an American or because I am an individual?

In the post I was trying to determine if Americans would answer the two questions that I asked my Chinese students the same way I answered the questions.  Did I answer the question the way I did because of my culture or because I am just a unique individual?  The Chinese students all answered the questions the same way, so I would assume their answers were culture based.  

The American answer to the question about teenagers had a similar theme of searching for one's identity as an independent individual which was different than the Chinese answer.  The American answer to the question about the elderly was more similar to the Chinese answer.

In conclusion, my answers to the questions mirrored American answers.  I am American; therefore, I think like an American.

Below are the results to the survey:

Question:  What are the major themes and issues of being a teenager?

Chinese College Seniors	American Women
Study	Freedom; independence from parents (my answer) Kids rebelling and trying to find their own identity Finding yourself, your personality, seeing yourself separate from your parents Fitting in, being cool, being yourself learning independence, discovering who you are Finding out who you are and bonding with people in your own way

Question:  What are the major themes and issues of being an elderly person?

Chinese College Seniors	American Women
Enjoy life and take care of grandchildren	Dealing with losing independence due to health problems (my answer) Look back to see accomplishments and being reflective about life Enjoying who you are and what you created Staying healthy, staying connected with family Doing things you enjoy Enjoying your life, and discovering how important your influence is on younger people; giving back to the younger generation

Thank you to the 5 American women who answered the survey.

Packing for China

When I was packing for China, I was still in the mindset of living in Burkina Faso where there was no electricity or running water. I packed two headlamps for goodness sake and packed too many African clothes. In retrospect, if I had to pack again, what top 10 things would I bring? Well, knowing that after training before boarding a crowded train, PC could possibly weigh me down with a ton of teaching books, a water distiller, an air filter, a mood light, a carbon monoxide detector and a smoke detector, I would try to pack all of my USA stuff into one or two carry-on sized pieces of luggage.

Top 10 Items I would Pack

1. Music player of some sort and a digital camera
2. Knitting book to teach myself how to knit, set of crochet hooks (hard to find crochet hooks in China), set of large sized DPNs and in the round knitting needles. Chinese women like to knit with DPNs size 0.
3. Favorite sheet music for the piano
4. 1-2 favorite books that I can read over and over again, plus a journal and a few good pens
   
5. Money belt
6. Clothes I don't mind leaving behind and clothes or patterns that I would love to have copied by inexpensive tailors
7. A warm jacket and long underwear
8. 1 pair of comfortable dress shoes that can be used for all occasions, hot weather and cold weather
9. 1 pair of comfortable sandals that can be used for all occasions
10. 1 pair of good running shoes

Advice: What do you enjoy doing in life? Pack that.

I do not enjoy shopping but do know that I can buy almost anything I need in China. Good batteries are expensive and hard to find. I don't like shopping for clothes, so I would pack clothes. If you are bigger than the average Chinese person, then clothes and shoes are probably quite important.

Different coz I am an American or different coz I am an individual?

I have finished teaching the first short story class to all three classes of seniors about 90 students. During class as an introduction to the theme of human behavior we explored the ideas of life stages, universal human characteristics and cultural human characteristics.

I asked the students what are the different life stages in a person's lifetime starting with birth and ending with death.

We all basically came up with the same idea:
Birth, Childhood, Teenage Years, Adulthood, Old Age, and Death

But then when I asked what were the major themes and issues of each particular life stage, all of my students across the three different classes came up with the same answer for the teenage years and old age. Their identical answer was very different than mine.

So then I started wondering was my answer different than theirs because I am an individual or because I am an American? If asked the same questions, would Americans all come up with the same answer?

I want to take a survey and see what the results are. Please answer the questions off the top of your head like you have 30 seconds to answer them all.

1. Which culture are you from?
2. What are the major themes and issues of being a teenager?
3. What are the major themes and issues of being an elderly person?

After collecting some answers, I will post my findings, comparing the answers that the Chinese students gave with the answers from people from other cultures.

First Day of Class

Successful!

I am always shocked at the difference between the language levels of freshmen and seniors. Four years of English nurtures students' creativity, thinking, and confidence in being able to express themselves. It is kind of hard switching gears from seniors in the morning to freshmen in the evening.

With seniors, we can discuss philosophical questions about morals, universal human characteristics versus cultural characteristics, the historical origins of the differences in western and eastern ways of thinking.

With freshmen, we are discussing what did you do during Spring Festival, what kinds of foods did you eat, what is the difference between a firecracker and a firework.

I believe I spoke too fast and taught too high this afternoon with the freshmen. I need a gimmick to remind myself to slow down, to use shorter sentences, and to repeat more often. Any suggestions?

In Africa because the class sizes were so huge and because students were too afraid to ask questions or to tell the teacher to slow down I had always toyed with the idea of having bell ringers or flag wavers as the representatives of the class to chime in when I was speaking too fast or when students didn't understand what was going on. I just never implemented it. I wonder if it would actually work.

Fun Writing Activities for Writing Club

Last semester I organized a creative writing club. Once a week for 1.5 hours we would write and read to each other.

Here is a list of all of the activities that we did in the club. Almost all of the activities I found off the Internet. In this posting I am just compiling them and am in no way taking credit for thinking up these ideas. All of these writing exercises were quite successful and the students enjoyed them.

Short Story
Metaphor Poem
Hands
Emotion Poem
Random Words Epigraph
6-Word Memories and Poems I
6-Word Memories and Poems II

(If you can't read the blogs, just tell me and I will cut and paste the blogs and send them to you.)

A. Dreams of _______
(Idea written by Jennifer inspired from "The Dreams of Domenica Santolina Doone" from the book Bloomability by Sharon Creech.)
1. Think of the different parts of who you are.
For example, Jennifer is
American, Chinese, teacher, alone, a girl, an athlete, a world traveler, a friend, an ex-gf, lover of food, crier, lover, hater.....
2. Pick one aspect of you for example lover and write a short piece titled the Dreams of a Lover.

B. 6-Word Feelings
1. List different emotions
2. Pick one emotion
3. Write 6 word sentence about that emotion answering the questions
What colors describe it?
What type of room, place, setting?
How does the body feel?
What do you taste?

C. Five-line Poem
Line 1: involves an emotion
Line 2: involves the emotion as a color
Line 3: ________ happens when ______
Line 4: ______ sounds like _____
Line 5: Repeats original emotion

D. Free-writing
http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/
http://www.theteacherscorner.net/daily-writing-prompts/
Pick one and write for 10 minutes
At first, I wasn't worried....
I wish I were there now.
Did you see that?
The doctor said, "You have one month to live."

E. 5-10 word stories

Each person begins with 5-word prompt then adds exactly 5 words of their own.
Once upon a time there....
The mystery began when the....
In a kingdom far away....
Once, long ago, a tiny....

F. Write about a photograph

G. Dialogues
(Idea presented by Cheryl, teacher at Number 2 middle school)
Complete the dialogues
1. At a party with a boyfriend
A. Hey beautiful want to dance?
B.
2. At a party with girlfriends, a nerdy boy asks
A. Hey, umm.... do you want to dance?
B.
3. An old man in a shop ready to close the shop but there is a young mother still in the shop. Shopkeeper is angry and ready to leave the shop.
Write a dialogue between the two people.
4. The shopkeeper is angry and ready to close but there is a big man still shopping.
Write a dialogue between the two people.
5. Pick one of the following and write a very short story about the situation including a dialogue.
a. Boyfriend and girlfriend breakup
b. 2 old friends in a supermarket
c. 2 people have an accident in the street

H. Pass the story to the next student

Each student picks one writing prompt. Writes 1-2 sentences and then passes the story to the next student.
She couldn't believe they were open so...
It was cold sitting there, but...
I didn't want to stop there, but it seemed...
Plotting her evil plan, the little girl....
He couldn't believe she said it, and yet...
She didn't care if the whole school knew so...
She peered through the opening and...
It was maybe the biggest one she'd ever seen and she...

Birth

For the senior English short stories class with a theme of human behavior we are starting with birth, poems from Sharon Creech's heartbeat.

Having a baby seems like such an important moment in a person's life. Being born is a memory that is long gone but revived somehow when you have your own.

I wonder how different it is having a baby in different countries. I never did get to ask questions about it in Africa where most of my friends were men and students. I bet the West African PC health volunteers know more about it. I have only experienced an American family having a baby by being the outsider, the friend who takes care of the other children while the mom and dad go off to have the baby.

The poems in the book are from the viewpoint of the big sister as she watches her family have a baby. I wonder how similar or how different her viewpoint is from the way a Chinese family will have a baby.

My observations of watching my friends have babies is similar to the protagonist in Creech's book.

The woman starts feeling sick and then learns she is pregnant. A baby shower is thrown. The family talks to the baby while it is growing in mommy's tummy and a room is prepared for the new addition. Doctor's are visited, ultrasounds are taken, heartbeats are heard, and classes and books are used to prepare for the birth. The time comes, a babysitter is called to watch the other children or the grandpa who needs looking after. Then dad drives the mom to the hospital or to a birthing center and hours later a baby is born. The baby is taken home soon after and everyone wonders about the fragility of life and the preciousness of it as we peer at the little toes and fingers and the yawning mouth.

I guess I am feeling a bit excited now for my first day of class to hear my students' reactions to the poems and to learn about how their families had their babies.

PS. I wonder does everyone have a birth story? Does your family tell you stories about when you were born? Or is the memory of one's birth silently kept by mothers and fathers?

Teaching Schedule

For the past 3 semesters, I have had a random schedule of teaching 10-12 hours a week, sometimes even just 4 hours a week for half a semester when the seniors were doing their teaching practice. I never taught five days a week.

This semester I have 16 hours a week and will be teaching five days a week. My 4 freshmen listening classes have been combined into two, so instead of having 30 students per class, now I will have 60 students per class. I will be teaching 3 senior classes of English Short Stories. I have killed so many trees lately since they have no book and I have to prepare a book for them.

It will be a busy semester. My sitemate and I received grant money to do secondary projects: English Club for Women, English Club for Knitters, Writing Club, Book Club, Reading Competition, Yoga Club, Cooking Club and buy books to stock the Tree House English Community Center. Plus if I want to continue learning Chinese, then I will have to make time for Chinese corner and lessons.

Yep, busy, busy semester.

What is Love?

"Love is when you care for somebody and you be willing to go out of your way and do anything for that person, and if they have problems that you can help them out any way you know how. If they sick that you can bring them medicine, or give them a helping hand. That's what love is...simply caring for others." -Riding the Bus With My Sister

What is a Relationship?

A relationship is
finding the balance of love,
realizing that not everyone shows love the same way
realizing that not everyone cares the same way
realizing that not everyone needs the same care
A relationship is
being different from each other
and learning how to live with those differences
in a peaceful way,

Coz sometimes just loving and caring for someone isn't enough.

-Dr. Jen

Delicious

Wanna know something that is absolutely fantastic about living in China?

I can walk to the corner grocery store and buy 4 servings of freshly made, handmade noodles for a total of $0.30.  Then I can go home, make a spaghetti sauce filled with fresh ingredients including freshly made sausage, boil the water for the noodles and voila.

Incredible deliciousness!

What is too much homework?

I never remember ever complaining that I was given too much homework, well except maybe in high school. In high school, boy, I was really busy extra-curricular activities and homework galore. In college, I studied a lot and did most of my homework in the wee hours of the morning. I was not a night owl but an early bird.

As a teacher in China, I wonder, what is too much homework? At my Chinese college, the electricity is turned off at around 11 pm and there aren't any 24 hour libraries. Students live in dorms with 7 other roommates, not the best place to study. So I wonder, because of the study and living environment, how much homework is too much homework? I don't really give my students a lot of homework; however, this semester with my freshmen listening class I want to give a weekly listening homework assignment. Because the access to computers and Internet is limited, the homework will be pair-work, 3 parts, focused on learning new vocabulary, dictation, and listening to texts about news.

Part 1
Using the 10 new vocabulary words in the textbook, write a question and an answer with the vocabulary words. (Last semester, I had the students just write sentences with the words; however, they just copied sentences out of their dictionaries.)

For part 2 and 3 I will give every student a different, short text about current news events. Every week they will use the text for their homework and then switch texts with a fellow student the following week.

Part 2
Write three questions about your text. Next read the text to a fellow student and ask your questions. The student who is listening should take notes, answer the questions and write a short summary about what they heard.

Part 3
Using your given text, do a 1-5 sentence dictation with a fellow student.

Is this too much homework?

The disadvantage of this homework assignment is that students will not be listening to native speakers but to each other.

The advantage of this homework assignment is that the students will practice listening at a speed that they can understand which hopefully will lead to being able to understand native speakers. Also, students will be able to listen to new vocabulary and cultural references that occur in news broadcasts and hopefully will use the information in discussions in English with their fellow classmates.

The listening portion of the national English exam, the TEM4 has about 5 news broadcasts and a very long dictation. I believe that two problems students have with listening are new vocabulary and cultural references. Will this homework assignment help with that?

My First Sweater: Finished

It took one month for me to finally finish my very first knitted sweater. I probably could have finished it faster if it hadn't been so cold in the places where we were traveling. One might assume that knitting warms up fingers. Actually when it is cold, I just want to snuggle into a ball under heavy blankets with only my nose peeking out. I spent many nights and mornings like that. Knitting was done in sporadic moments of sunshine.

I am quite pleased with my knitted sweater. It fits great. I like it a lot.
There were only a few problems.

1. The collar looks a bit funky because I started the ribbed collar right after I cast on. This was a mistake. Note to self: Next time do the ribbed collar at the end by picking up stitches.
2. There is some uneven knitting where the double pointed needles met. Trying to prevent ladders, I would tug on the second stitch to tighten everything up. Instead a new problem cropped up where I got a very visible line of very loose stitches. Also, the decreases were very visible. I wonder are there invisible decreases?I have enough yarn left-over to knit another blue sweater. I plan on using size 0-2 needles. It is the Chinese way. The yarn is meant for tiny metal needles. I am in China. I should make a Chinese sweater using the techniques that the women here are using.

Home Sweet Home

I have arrived home to a city under attack by tiny cannons shooting off blasts into the air and long string of exploding mines where when one sets off a chain reaction of 5 minute explosions.

Unlike during the trip, I haven't seen four year old boys with their lighters running in opposite directions of lit fuses.

At least I have a never-ending cup of tea and an automatic washer.  No longer will my fingers turn into fat sausages from the freezing cold of hand washed laundry in buckets of ice water.

Bus Ride on the Tibetan Plateau

February 8, 2010

 

With the blast of a Tibetan musical wail, with cigarette smoke in the air, and while wearing 4 layers of clothing, our bus took off from *Shangri-La to travel across the Tibetan plateau through the mountains that separate the provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan to arrive 8 hours later in Xiang Cheng.  Our  bus windows rattled the whole way crescending into an extreme forte as we hit the high pass traveling 4 hours on a dirt rocky road with a panorama view of rocky grey mountain peaks (10-14,000 ft) at eye level through the windows.

 

We traveled from grassy yellow plains littered with log cabins and two story massive Tibetan wooden houses that had hundred year old tree trunks as columns like the old Southern plantations through the usually closed snowy mountain pass of evergreens arriving in the high desert of California surrounded by hills with scattered green bushes or maybe arriving into Mexico or South America with white washed 3-story mesa houses made out of mud and men and women wearing cowboy-hats and long skirts with colorful aprons. 

 

Had we left China?  Maybe we had because there was a distinct language barrier, a mixture of Tibetan and the Sichuan dialect rendering my Chinese pretty useless.

 

* Shangri-La's original name is Zhong Dian.  In 2002 the Chinese government approved a name change, to boost tourism?

Warm and Please Help: Suggest a Short Story

Last night was the first night in two weeks that I did not have to sleep with all of my clothes, a hat, and a scarf.  I am back on the heated side of the Yangtze River in Xian and will be heading back to site tomorrow to get started lesson planning for a short story class that has no textbook. 

 

The theme of the class will be human behavior.  How does culture influence human behavior and how does culture influence how we understand stories?  How much of human behavior is universal versus cultural?  We will read stories starting with the beginning of life proceeding through the life cycle ending with old age.  If you have any stories that you think will be interesting for my Chinese students and that are in the free domain please send me a link.  Thanks!

Random Thoughts: Grading and Knitting

In the USA, people use sugar cubes. In China people use sugar rock candy.

I don't like knitting lace because I don't know how to fix it when I mess up. I was 1/3rd done with a snowflake sock and decided to pull it out.

Currently I am knitting a plain sock with a decorative ribbed length wise stripe; however, I am getting ugly ladders where the 3 needles meet each other. Because it is ugly, I have learned a new technique where you tug on the second stitch after the needle change to tighten up the first stitch at that joint.

The current sock has been troublesome because I am knitting it as a present. I feel it needs to be almost perfect for it to be wearable. I on the other hand tend to wear my own knitted goods even if they are not the most perfect, but as a gift if the finished product isn't good, it will sit in a drawer. I have pulled it out 5 times already, attempting different decorative patterns and have tried a recently learned technique called the short row heel. My first attempts have been very very holey.

I am also grading. Here is my current dilemma. In China a grade of 60 is passing. Out of my 120 students the highest grade has been a 98 and the lowest is a 45 with an average of 80. Four out of 128 students have failing grades. I hate failing students. I don't mind scaling but with a high grade of 98 what is the best way to scale? What to do? Maybe I just have to come to terms with the idea that some of my students will fail.

My First Sweater: The Neck

The pattern I am using is a fill in the blank pattern with very few instructions and is a top down, knit in the round sweater pattern.

The pattern is called The Incredible, Custom-fit Raglan Sweater by Pamela Costello.

I am not exactly sure if it is a good pattern for a first sweater because it doesn't really give you many specific details like how to finish the edges. At this time with about 10 rows on my needles, I feel like the pattern will give me the bulk of the sweater but the rest, the fine details, not so sure about. Since I don't have a knitting mentor, it is a little difficult figuring out the fine details with my limited experience.

For example, currently my collar is rolling up. What if I wanted a collar that was ribbed? How do I do that? When do I do that?

Also, I am trusting the blanks and the math. I am not sure what the final measurements of this sweater is going to be. It is a mystery. Will it be too small? Will it be too big? Will it be just right?

Here are the starting measurements for the neck which will be changed if the sweater fits funny. I am not afraid of ripping out a project that I have been working on for days. I want a wearable piece of clothing.

Needle: US 5
Gauge: 5.83 st/in
Neck-size 15"
Total neck stitches 88

The neck is a bit complicated and at first I didn't understand the instructions that you begin knitting back and forth and not in the round. It was my first rip out.

I am also hoping that I understood correctly that the increases only happen on the knit side which I am assuming is the right side of the fabric. I am also assuming that after casting on the center front stitches, I should start knitting in the round.

Also, there are several types of ways to increase. Which way is best for a raglan sweater? Does it matter? I am currently using the knit two stitches in one stitch increase instead of a yarn over increase.

Stay tuned for more updates on how this sweater is going and how often I rip it out and change something.

Which needles to pack?

I will be living out of a bag for a month or so.

I do not like packing for winter travel. Winter clothes take up so much space!

How many tops?
I am bringing one super bulky sweater because it is a good fit and shape to copy for a sweater I will be knitting.

How many pairs of pants?

In winter because of the layers one does not have to wash clothes as much. Just need to wash all of the long underwear.

Also, which knitting supplies do I need to bring? What are the minimal number of needles?

Well what kind of projects might I do on this trip?
1. Raglan Sweater (circular needles)
2. Socks (DPN size 0 and 1)
3. Hats (DPN and circular size 8?)
4. Scarves (DPN size 10)

If you were going to be away from your knitting supplies for a month, which needles would you bring?

Weekend Errands

Yesterday I spent all day learning how to knit a different heel, a short row heel that is. It is always fun learning something new and the nice thing about knitting is one can see the progress.

Today I washed my backpack from Africa and the water turned dark red with all of the dust from Africa.

Then I went out.

I tried on 10 pairs of pants and either they were too baggy, too tight, too decorative with ribbons and pointless pockets, or too expensive. It was a 70% off sale though. So instead I bought a really cool jacket for $10.

Then I went to my usual barber with a desire to chop it all off, but the main guy wasn't there. No one wanted to try to cut my hair into the unique non-Chinese style pictured in the photographs I brought. Maybe fate is telling me, "Don't cut your hair short."

Twiddling my Thumbs

This week has been a week of sitting, waiting for my students to take their final. It feels like the rest of the volunteers are finished and on holiday already. Even my students say their friends in other cities are already back home for the winter break. My finals will be next Monday, my sitemate's next Wednesday and the last final for the students will be on the 19th of January. We will then have a month off and school will start the 1st of March.

What does one do in a city while one waits?

1. Go to a bakery and do sudoku and crossword puzzles, not me personally since I don't really like doing puzzles but go with the puzzle doer and hang out.
2. Go to BBQ and eat sticks of lamb and chicken wings using free plastic gloves provided to protect your hands from the grease.
3. Buy more yarn and knit scarves. Start knitting socks with a friend's huge yarn stash.
4. Plan winter break travel to Yunnan and Lijiang.
5. Cook lentil, potato, pork soup.
6. Have a Tree House worker party for students and play Steal the Present (White Elephant).
7. Watch anything by Neil Gaiman.
8. Get a massage where the next day your whole back is tender. What does that mean? During the massage it felt great. After the massage, I felt pain.

Pictures

Since I don't post many pictures nor take pictures other than knitting, I thought you might enjoy this link that an RPCV (returned Peace Corps volunteer) recently suggested.

Why do I only take pictures of knitting? Well, my camera is finicky and I have to fiddle around with the lens which is easy to do in a house with a knitted good that just sits there. Taking pictures out in the real world is nearly impossible with my broken camera.

Wacky Colors

Using a simple sock pattern by Kim Goddard, I have wiped out my yarn stash except for two balls of beautiful Noro sent to me by a friend and 8 balls of blue to be made into a sweater.

Knitting fair isle socks makes for some crazy looking socks, socks that you would never ever see in a department store. I love how they fit though and how they are super warm. I love knitting them.

But they sure are a bit wacky.

I am not sure I like knitting fair isle because after finishing the toe, I have to turn the sock inside out and sew 30 freaking yarn ends. That is annoying. Experienced knitters, any advice? Do I just have to suck it up or is there a secret shortcut? Help me out.

Learning to Knit & Learning to Live in China

I have bought the yarn for my first sweater.

It is blue. I bought 1.5 jin which is 750 grams for a total of 60 RMB ($10). The saleswoman said 500 grams would me enough, but the store only had 750 grams of this particular color so I bought too much fearing the need to knit two more inches and the store running out of that color. It is better to be safe than sorry.

When I told the woman I was knitting my first sweater, she asked, "blah or blah?"

I knew she was asking what type of yarn for what type of sweater but I just couldn't understand the new vocabulary. She pointed me to two types of yarn. Preferring to make a lighter sweater than a heavier one, I was finally able to find the right combination of vocabulary words to convey my desire, "Well if it isn't too cold, which yarn is best?"

As I was handing the woman my 100 RMB bill, she said, "Last year your Chinese was terrible. This year it is better."

Wow.

As I was walking home, I realized how this year has been a long process of learning: lots of trial and error, lots of mistakes, lots of failed attempts at trying to communicate, lots of patience mixed with frustration, lots of lessons on how to face failure and try again.

I remember sitting on my couch with 4 double pointed aluminum needles in my hand reading a book that said bend the needles into a circle. The needles didn't feel very sturdy and I thought well I guess they might be bendable. So I took one straight needle and bent it into an L. I quickly realized physically bending a straight knitting needle was not what the book meant. I sat there looking at my four bent needles unable to knit with them thinking, "That's just great. Tonight's attempt at learning how to knit in the round has been put to rest until I can go out and buy some new needles."

I remember looking and looking for yarn that would felt, buying large amounts, knitting huge bags, only to end up with a finished un-felted stretched out product. I would spend frustrated moments trying to explain to the saleswoman that I wanted 100% wool that when washed in hot water gets smaller. She would point. I would choose a color and then would spend hours knitting a bag that would not felt. I'd go back to the store and try again and again and again making my stash larger and larger with wool that would not felt. Finally, I had to learn to give up my independent ways and just ask a Chinese student to come and help. By then I had also learned to buy the smallest ball and test it. Et voila, after what seemed like a thousand attempts I had found yarn that would felt.

I remember buying yarn for a shawl in the fluorescent store lights and ending up with an ugly color that was unwearable in the sunlight.

Today's yarn buying for my first sweater was like making an A on a pop quiz.

1. I was able to communicate and get the right yarn.
2. I took the yarn out into the sunlight to see the real color.
3. I bought more than enough yarn to finish a sweater. (I hope.)
4. I was able to trust the experienced saleswoman with whom I have been having ongoing communication lessons and battles through my knitting experiments.

Learning how to knit and buy yarn in China has been an education in more ways than just learning how to form fabric from string.

Just another day

Today has just been another day.

I drank a nescafe mix adding chocolate and more instant coffee, eating Xian hostel's Christmas cookies.

I typed up a roster of 120 students and calculated their 30% participation grades that included grades for a notebook and a presentation. I am waiting for them to take their finals next Monday.

I started another sock. My yarn is running really low. I have no full balls and therefore will be knitting a very colorful sock with the yarn I have left.

I washed clothes and mopped the floor.

I am irked that my brown heavy corduroy pants bought last year have two holes poking through the back pockets. But hey since it is cold and I am always wearing long underwear I guess the holes don't really matter. It does make me feel a bit grungy though and the holes will probably only get bigger as I trek around China during the winter break. It is better to totally wear through clothes, getting one's money's worth. They were $20 and I am just irked that they were so expensive and already falling apart.

I also bought a plane ticket. Instead of going to Harbin, now I will be traveling to Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces. The student who is doing post graduate school in Harbin will be going home for Spring Festival, so I won't be traveling to that freezing cold place.

What is planned for the rest of the day?

• letter writing and thank you cards
• yarn shopping
• stopping by the English department to pick up DVDs for my class tomorrow and cassette tapes to record the final on
• making photocopies of PC paperwork
• cooking an omelet with cheese that some friends bought in Xian and gave to me

Visitors

Blogging has been at a standstill because a whirlwind week full of shopping, eating, and touring my city and Xian occurred as friends from the US and Taiwan whom I had met in Africa came to visit filling my apartment with laughter and joy, allowing me to also glimpse into the window of the future, life in the USA.

Beautiful Memories of the Week

1) Getting to have special moments with each person whether it be knitting together, taking a hike down and up a valley, sharing stories before falling asleep, or having an interested person ask questions about tiny details about my life in China was really warming to the heart.

2) Events that could have been full of anger and unhappiness like waiting in a freezing airport for two hours for a late plane that would only take 30 minutes to fly to Xian or riding a bumpy 3.5 hour bus ride after eating food at the railway station were instead turned into hours of laughter, funny observations and good stories.

3) Realizing that my Chinese has become more confident and has improved over the year as I was the tour guide and translator was wow, made me feel happy.

My guests were wonderfully easy to entertain, feed, and house. They brought kindness, laughter, and compassion into visiting China. They were extremely grateful and all I can do to show my own gratitude is to say Thank You.

Butter

After sitting in the Tree House for a couple hours then unable to hail a taxi, I took a bus to one of the American middle school teacher's flat and spent a pleasant Christmas Eve under the glow of the tall plastic Christmas tree gorging myself with butter. Mashed potatoes, salmon, and broccoli were prepared and Christmas cookies were served as dessert. Food tasted amazing. I had forgotten how butter is just so delicious.

The hostess gave me a beautiful basket that will be perfect for stashing yarn. It was full of edible goodies and I handed out tea cozies, bookmarks, and cards that entitled the bearer to a free knitted gift of their choice.

I find it a bit hypocritical of me handing out trinkets that fill people's houses with stuff. I don't like filling my house with stuff, and I don't like receiving stuff. Food is a perfect gift, but tea cozies and bookmarks are just plain crap, beautiful crap, but none the less crap. Why do I do it? Why? I don't like receiving such things so why do I give them out?

Well,

1. What does one do with small balls of yarn but to make small trinkets?
2. I have to keep my hands moving which results in a ton of homemade clutter.

Anyways, now I am tired and am ready for bed.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

A Wallflower and December Parties Galore

It started in November with a Thanksgiving dinner

then December arrived.....

Beer pong night
Hanukkah lighting of candles
Tree House Christmas party for the campus
Chinese friends' Christmas hot pot with two cakes
Swedish Advent Coffee
English Department's Christmas Banquet
English Department's Holiday Performance
Christmas Eve dinner
Christmas Day brunch
Boxing Day party

Of the 11 invitations, I only went to 6 of them.

In perks of being a wallflower, chbosky wrote, "Sometimes people use thoughts to not participate in life."

I participate in life. I just don't participate in every single thing. I am a home body, enjoy being close to home and want to turn in early. I don't like walking empty streets at night or taking a taxi back to campus. In Africa I never went dancing because of the problem of how to get back home safely. So yeah I guess my thoughts and fears of being out late keep me from participating, but also my body keeps me from participating in a night life. During social events especially ones held at night, my energy drops drastically. If you want to get up at 5 am and go for a run or lift weights, I am wide awake, but if you want to party and laugh the night away I am not the gal for that.

I participate in things that I like to do in life.

I like dressing up in costumes and even if I don't know how to put on makeup, I will attempt to do it. The time I tried to draw vines all over my face using black eyeliner or the time I tried to paint big eyelashes like in Clockwork Orange or do the makeup of Dr. Frank-N-Furter or glue on a fake beard always looked super amateurish and not very cool but hey I like dressing up.

I like coloring with oil pastels and will do 20 paintings of the same scene never getting better coz umm... my art has never been through an art class and is a bit like that of a 4 year old child. You should see how I colored my Christmas stocking or how I cut out gingerbread cookies freehand when I didn't have a cookie cutter. At least, I have supportive friends who don't judge.

I like to dance and have no idea how I look.

I like to learn about different cultures and interact with the local community. I rarely decline offers even if I know it might be boring. It is the way to start integrating into the local community and to make new friends.

I participate in things I like to do in life.

After reading, Salinger's Catcher in the Rye in high school, I vowed never to be phony, never to have phony conversations that fill time and space, never to kiss up to the big wigs. I think this is why in America, I have a hard time making small talk and have a hard time creating a professional network. This is why parties full of strangers is not for me. Most of the time in order to get to know a stranger at a party, small talk has to be made. One can't just dive right into intimate topics.

This strong dislike for small talk only exists when I am in America. For some reason, in an international community, I almost never have problems with the idea of just chatting the time away about nothing important. It is a way to practice my language skills and plus living in other countries, I am a visitor who feels I should "in Rome do as the Romans do." In China and West Africa, small talk and sitting for hours talking about the weather are important aspects in being part of a community. In America, I am an American and can make my own rules on how to be an American. Internationally I feel the push to conform and respect the norms, traditions, and culture of the place I am visiting.

I do think a lot, but I don't think that I am like chbosky's wallflower who thinks too much failing to participate in life. There are times when thinking gets the best of me and my anxiety rises, but in order to cope with that I just ask myself the question, "What is the worse that can happen?"

I answer, take a deep breath and get through whatever it is that is causing my anxiety.

How to always be loved

The desire to be loved is strong.
The desire to be accepted is strong.
Conformity often results.
To be different one must be ready to accept criticism and judgement.
One must be strong enough not to be loved.

Even when people attempt to be unique individuals,
are they really?
Since the world is united in the human experience,
what is being done today has been done before and will be done again.
Is anything really unique?

But the real question is how do you find you, the inner you, the you who is truly you, not the you influenced by them, by the past, by pain and rejection?

How do you find you?

By sitting in silence listening to yourself?
By writing and exploring the inner you?
By connecting to the love and joy created by you and you alone?

I walk around in a black skirt with an embroidered big red flower, the hem dragging on the ground being kicked and tripped over by my well-used scruffy boots, and the students gasp in admiration when I walk into the classroom. But it was the fun and joy I felt before entering the stage of 62 eyes that I knew that the skirt was truly me. I love the way the skirt moves with me, and in realizing that I am in love, I find me.

I wonder though, if the class had gasped in horror, would I be strong enough not to be loved, to continue wearing the skirt I love but others hate?

Maybe to find the true you, all you have to do is create. Instead of wearing and buying items from the mass produced, create your own world according to you.

The skirt was made in Africa according to my instructions. I created something that was me.

I knit and often feel that my color combinations are all wrong. Wrong because in the world of mass production, I have never seen that color combination? Maybe the colors I decide to combine are actually right, are the colors I am truly feeling in that moment, but the fear of rejection makes me doubt the combined colors?

When I was in high school, how was I a Spinelli Stargirl, a girl who is so in tune with what she loves and is so confident being herself that she ignores peer pressure? To be herself, she is strong enough not to be loved by the people who judge her, the people who want her to be normal like everyone else.

1. For Valentine's I stayed up all night making homemade cards for my classmates.
2. During sports games and camps, I was the lone voice who continuously cheered and even during basketball camp got picked by the head coach to move to his gym because my voice wouldn't stop, a lone cheering voice amongst hundreds of girls.
3. During 11th grade prom, I brought my dad.
4. During 12th grade prom I spent the whole night on the dance floor, most of the time on an empty dance floor, sometimes joined by other dancers. I asked the boys who didn't bring a date to dance, but was only met in silence.

Have I lost the Spinelli Stargirl now that I am 32?

I have gotten lazy, and instead of doing and creating, I get lost in watching.

I love kung fu.
I love riding my bike.
I love spreading color on paper with my fingers.
I love meeting people from a different culture.
I love exploring a city.

But currently I am stuck in my apartment full of excuses.

The weather is too cold.
I am too tired.
The weather is too cold.
I love knitting, and therefore, spend almost all of my free time knitting at the sacrifice of other loves.

Watching media is one hurdle I face when looking for me to love, but my biggest struggle comes when I am with a partner. I cannot bear being unloved. I conform to their ideas, to their wants, to their needs, all because I want their love and have forgotten my own love for myself. Loving myself is sometimes so hard especially when there is another person in the picture loving me. Instead of living off the love created by myself, I tend to live off the love that the other person gives. Another person's love isn't very reliable.

Jen, you've got to find your inner Stargirl and keep her close. If you can hear her, then you will always be loved.

tack me to the Wall

Today my sitemate gave me the book the perks of being a wallflower by stephen chbosky. I have only read like 4 pages and am already identifying with this kid who is still in high school and who is a boy. I mean, I am 32, grownup, and am a woman, what does it mean that I am identifying with some high school kid?

I am kind of scared to go on.

The first few pages have already talked about some heavy stuff and the other night at writing club I was writing about some heavy stuff and I am like scared of all this heavy stuff, heavy stuff that is the kind of stuff that sometimes goes on in my head.

Before reading on and figuring out why the author named the book as he did, I decided that I might as well write about what I think the perks of being a wallflower are. I label myself as a wallflower and personally struggle with this problem more so in the states than abroad; although, this holiday season has put me face to face with my wallflower personality as I decline invitation after invitation and debate whether or not to decline three more invitations to parties at the end of this week. I am being a BIG FAT scrooge.

Even just in the opening paragraph I identify with the protagonist who writes, " I just need to know that someone out there listens and understands and doesn't try to sleep with people even if they could have. I need to know that these people exist."

I know these people exist coz well I am one of them, but there are nights when I am like I don't want to be one of them. I want to be that other person who is the life of the party, flirts, and makes out. I try so hard sometimes to be someone that I am not trying so hard to break out of my shell, forcing myself to socialize, believing that with practice I'll be able to leave the wall. But alas, my all out attempts as I swallow my fear and try to be the life of the party often end in disaster.

I wrote this poem years ago

____________________________________

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Were you ever shy?

If you were ever shy
always sitting against a wall
amongst a crowd of butterflies
afraid to let go of your protective wall
of silence
rarely flirting that would lead to a much
desired make out session
always going hoping to connect
but always leaving feeling dejected

Well then
come to my school of wallflowers
and
we will learn to be social together.

May we help each other out.

Tonight I am going to a party full of dancing, sexy people.
____________________________________

Umm, yeah, sooo, don't come to my school of wallflowers. That party ended in disaster sending me back into my shell for a long long time. Run! Claim that you are tired, leave the party unfashionably early and run. Run in the opposite direction of all get togethers.

So yeah perks, what are the perks of being a wallflower?

Well I can stay in my shell and avoid things that I don't feel like doing. I can claim that my anti-social skills are because I am a wallflower and can hide inside this weird, quiet, hate talking on phones loner. It is safe hiding behind the wallflower persona.

It is really weird though, coz I am not someone who hides. I am a teacher. I do presentations. I join sports teams and start clubs. In school I raise my hand. I have traveled and lived across the globe. I face the things I fear, yet under certain circumstances I hide and say yep, that's just me the wallflower. It's like an excuse and a way to keep everybody away from me when I don't want to be social or friendly.

I guess that is kind of a perk. Right?

Another perk would be, as a wallflower, I attract wallflowers. So being a wallflower isn't always lonely. Being a wallflower is just lonely when the room is full of flirty social butterflies. Sitting quiet in intimate conversations with a fellow wallflower is nice. There is a connection. I like my fellow wallflowers.

It is only 9 pm. I guess I should get back to the book.

To Do List

Knitting and doing laundry on a cold sunny winter day with ice water coming out of the taps is not a good combination.

It has been a productive morning:

1. Washed sheets, socks, and undergarments
2. Worked on a Christmas Powerpoint presentation
3. Started using my last two balls of yarn to knit red and gray striped socks
4. Washed dishes
5. Boiled fresh noodles to eat with tomato pork sauce (After Africa where I ate spaghetti constantly, I have not been able to bring myself to cook the wonderful dish. The other night though I watched Costanza eating a mouthful of spaghetti. So tempting!)
6. Wondered if drinking noodle water is unhealthy. Every noodle shop serves it as a hot drink.
7. Watched a cute knitting animated short, "The Last Knit." Like me, she just needs more yarn (youtube or youku clip)

Start a Library

If you ever want to start a library for your college campus in China, here are a few books that our students tend to enjoy, books that continue being checked out several times a semester. Our students want to read the classics and often Pride and Prejudice, Tom Sawyer, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Dickens, and Hemingway are checked out; however, I kind of find it hard to believe that any of those books are finished cover to cover. They are difficult.

Instead these books are more accessible and interesting to our students.

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume
Are you there God? It's me Margaret by Judy Blume
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
Heartbeat by Sharon Creech
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
Witches by Roald Dahl
His Dark Materials Series by Philip Pullman
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer
The Good Women of China by Xinran Xinran

Also, the Illustrated Classics are a good compromise to the unabridged classics. A lot of our students will read Oliver Twist the Great Illustrated Classic.

One may think that Harry Potter would be a great selection of books. We have the whole series; however, it is hard for students, too many strange words.

We might be writing another grant to get more books, any other suggestions?

Christmas: We waited an hour.

Tonight we had a low-key Christmas party for the students of the college.

We spent 2 hours shopping for candy, sunflower seeds, and a Christmas movie. Found the food, didn't find a Christmas movie, but as Christmas tradition dictates and even though it had no subtitles, we decided to show ELF again this year, our one and only Christmas movie. Okay I lied. We do have Home Alone, but it has been seen a million times in China. Last year only like 5 students showed up to watch it.

We hung signs up on Thursday.

Free Tree House Movie
5 pm Reading Competition Awards Ceremony, Christmas Singing, and Stocking Making
6 pm Movie

At 5 pm with Christmas music blaring, Santa hats donned, craft supplies waiting, and sacks of candy and sunflower seeds ready to be given out, we stood in an empty classroom wondering, "Where is everyone?" We had already postponed the party from Friday to Saturday due to the claims that everyone would be too busy on Friday because of the National exams on Saturday.

Saturday arrived and no one showed.

But because we are experienced volunteers we knew, if you wait long enough someone will come.

At 6 pm, with 6 students we started making paper stockings, using yarn to sew up the seams and markers to decorate.

At around 6:30 people started showing up. Sophomores, juniors, and seniors had just finished up their National exam, but very few freshmen made an appearance. Apparently a performance rehearsal was suddenly scheduled and many of our students were required to attend that. We still had a good showing, not too big, not too small just right of about 50 students.

We cut out, sewed, and decorated Christmas stockings and Santa's elves visited filling them with candy. We lit candles passing the flame from one candle to the next as "O Holy Night" played in the background and then sang "Silent Night."

Last we watched ELF.

Thankfully, with a little bit of patience, an empty classroom turned into a Christmas celebration.

Organizing my Flat and Knitting Fears

Winter Cleaning

After watching a youtube tour of a China PC volunteer's flat, I was like whoah, "His place looks organized and not cluttered. Why is my flat so messy?"

Yeah, why is my flat so messy? I have not bought much since arriving in China except for yarn. My house does fill with gifts from students plus all of the newly finished knitted goods. So even though I don't spend much money my house does fill with stuff. I am not a decorator yet my house is full of brightly colored Chinese embroidery hangy things and hand crafted wall hangings that sit on my chairs because well I don't know how to hang anything on these concrete walls.

I prefer having fewer possessions than more because the more possessions you have the more things you need to buy to organize and store your possessions in. Without cabinets, closets, and shelves, a house full of things will look like a tornado hit it. This is how my apartment looks at the moment, but I do have cabinets, drawers, closets and shelves. They are just empty, so I am working on filling them and organizing my things.

I don't know why I am not a neat person because my brain tends to be an organized brain. I love charts, tables, and diagrams. I like turning complicated concepts into simple pictures. When I was studying for my various graduate school exams, I would file all of my study notes into a binder including a table of contents and dividers. So why am I not like my brother who has a super neat and organized house? Why do I like piles? Why don't I like folding my clothes and putting them away? Why does my desk fill with stuff, a bowl and chopsticks, a tea cup, a Nalgene bottle, five knitting projects, pens, and paper, a battery, knitting supplies, and balls of yarn? It is chaos!

Anyways, I am doing a winter cleaning.

Time to Knit a Sweater

As my stash disappears into knitted socks, hats, ear warmers, scarves, and cup cozies, it is time to start thinking about buying yarn and finding a sweater pattern.

Ugh!

Sweater patterns are easy to find. I like simple. I like one color. I like v-necks. I like sweaters that I can wear a collared shirt under and look professional.

Yarn shopping though!
Super ugh!

I hate yarn shopping. I hate picking out colors. I don't know how to pick out the right yarn weight or fiber for a pattern, and figuring out which yarn matches which pattern seems like an impossible daunting task.

I don't want to look like a fat sausage because of a color, yarn, pattern combination. So then should I knit a loose sweater? What? And add 2 pounds to my hibernating winter eating figure? Ugh....

The experienced knitters say, "Look, just take one for the team and knit your first sweater."

"Fine! Fine!" I declare with a sense of argh, "I'll knit one."

Winter break is coming and long train rides to Chengdu and Harbin are in my near future.

Anyone want to go yarn shopping?

I didn't know

I am out of the loop.

This morning I was out of the loop coz I had no idea that I would be biking to school in the dark. When did the sun stop coming up by 7 am? Or maybe the sun was hidden by unseen clouds which I couldn't see in the dark?

During today's class I was out of the loop coz I thought maybe today was the last class of the semester, but then learned by a raise of hands that we have another one in two weeks. Hmm... What about January?

After class I was out of the loop coz it was snowing. I missed the weather report that there would be snow. It was the first time in my entire life that I have ever biked in snow. That was umm... fun.... snowflakes blinding me.

Wake up! You can't be a volunteer forever.

When I was sitting in downtown Seattle at a coffee shop looking out the window as the people were rushing home after work, waiting for a friend to finish up with his job, and writing my thoughts about future African adventures, it never occurred to me that I would be overseas for 4 years. I thought I'd be in Africa for 2 and then return to the states in mass confusion trying to determine what to do next. 2 years in Africa was a short postponement of starting a career, a career life I have never dreamed of having, but due to societal norms feel the pressure to have.

Instead I have made a career out of living overseas. 4 years is a long time. In four years, life changing evolutions happen as teenagers move away from home, live on their own for the first time and graduate from college. In four years, personalities evolve as they finish working on a masters or a PhD living in a totally different city than the little traditional ones of their hometowns. In four years, somehow people grow, change, form new habits and new opinions.

I have a friend who after three years overseas has finally changed her tune and now instead of wanting to be a nomad traveling across the world wants to settle down, wants a wife, security, a health plan, and a retirement plan. Why hasn't this happened to me? We're both the same age.

Four years overseas has made me into a SUPER wallflower. In the states, I was a wallflower, but now I am a SUPER wallflower especially around foreigners not around locals. Around locals I am extroverted, friendly, and know how to engage socially, but around foreigners, I clam up. I hide in the kitchen. I decline invitations.

Returning to the states I wonder what kind of community I will find and become a part of. SUPER wallflowers have difficulty finding community. After living overseas for four years, I fear that maybe I will hide in an isolated corner of the states and never come out. I wonder if I will start dating; however, living overseas I have learned that I am okay alone and don't need a partner.

My attitude towards not having a career has been reinforced by living overseas. I feel the joy and peace of having free time, of living on the bare essentials, of not having excess but just the right amount to feed, clothe, and house you. I don't care about having a high paying career, but feel that I can exist anywhere no matter what the salary is.

I wonder if someday a wake up call will hit me. Am I too idealistic and will American reality change my tune?

Yarn Stash: Good Gift?

I am still working through my yarn stash. I only have two skeins left with lots of little balls. I feel like soon I will be able to buy a new stash of yarn to start on a sweater.

Here is a recent project, a cup cozy, a re-usable cup holder to keep from using the cardboard ones at coffee shops; however, here in my city there are no coffee shops. I just use the cozy for my glass tumblers, a way to keep the drink hot and keep my fingers from burning.

Basic Cup Cozy by Janet Gallagher

I rarely see tall glass tumblers as coffee or tea cups in America. They are very popular in China. I love them. Do you like them? Would these glass cups make a good gift for friends when I return to the states?

Exploding Rice and Constructive Criticism

Today's Chinese lesson was a disaster.

I had a mess to clean up and picked an episode that was too high for my level.

We started with learning how to use the word "would."
For example, how would you say, "If you hadn't gone to China, what would you be doing?"

Then, my tutor described how to make rice porridge and I re-told the procedure using a few newly learned words. We took a break and ate some porridge that had boiled onto the floor making a mess of starchy goo, a large puddle of glob. The porridge that had managed to stay in the pot had a bottom layer of burnt rice with a top layer of edible porridge. Note to self, when cooking porridge in a rice pot check regularly and don't wait till the cooker automatically turns off.

Next we watched a cartoon episode whose dialogue was way over my head. The father and son discussed promises and trust along with the habitats and toys of bears.

At the end of the lesson, I was told that I really need to work on my tones.

Ugh.... Discouraged am I.

I don't know how to work on my tones other than to go back to square one and start memorizing all of the tones of all of the vocabulary I already know. Does anyone know how to improve the tones of spoken Chinese?

Hot Pot and Dumplings

Last weekend was full of accomplishments in the realm of language and community integration.

I have always felt that I would never be able to order hot pot because there are too many choices and too many things you have to order:

1) type of soup
2) type of dipping sauce
3) type of meat
4) type of vegetables.

My vocabulary and ability to read characters is very limited in the food realm; however, on Saturday a pretty nice hot pot meal was ordered with an awesome tomato based soup along with a garlic dipping sauce and vegetables and meat galore. (Well I kind of cheated, by walking around the restaurant having the waitress follow me as I pointed to the vegetables we wanted, but hey you do what you gotta do.) Not only was that cool, but the meal lasted like 2-3 hours which is very Chinese. It was a meal of leisure of eating and socializing, not this eat and go type of attitude that I have had a hard time giving up even after living abroad for four years.

Then on Sunday I had a full day hanging out with friends cooking and making pork and celery dumplings. It was a day of pure Chinese. These friends have stopped translating even just the theme of the conversation where knowing the theme often makes it easier to correctly guess what is going on. Instead I was on my own, but I didn't feel alone as I stood in the kitchen having a conversation with the cook learning about her wedding and how to cook. Learning language by being in the real world instead of sitting in a classroom, my Chinese improves by leaps and bounds.

It was a good weekend.

Environmentally Friendly Chopstick Tote

Idea by Molly and Pattern by Jennifer

The environmental impact of disposable wooden chopsticks is tremendous. According to The Independent in China there is an estimated 45 billion pairs of chopsticks that are thrown away which is about 25 million fully grown trees.

Why not crochet these easy chopstick covers to carry a pair of chopsticks with you wherever you go?

Nylon string
Hook D

Chopsticks
bottom width 0.375"
top width 0.7"
length 10.75"

Chopstick holder for a pair of chopsticks that are narrow at the bottom gradually becoming wider towards the top.

Instructions for the chopstick holder shown in the picture:

Row 1: ch 2, 6 sc in second chain from hook.
Row 2: 2 sc in first sc, sc in next 5 sc. (7 sc)
Row 3-21: sc in each sc acround.
Row 22: 2 sc in one sc (8 sc)
Row 23-36: Repeat row 3
Row 37: 2 sc in one sc (9 sc)
Row 38-75: Repeat row 3, finish off.

General Instructions:

This is a simple custom fit pattern where an occasional increase (2 sc in one sc) is done as the chopsticks become wider. Throughout the project place the chopsticks in the holder to determine when you should start increasing. When the holder becomes too snug increase by one sc.

Row 1: ch 2, 6 sc in second chain from hook.
Row 2: 2 sc in first sc, sc in next 5 sc. (7 sc)
Row 3: sc in each sc acround.
Next rows: repeat row 3 until chopsticks fit too tightly then do an increase row
Increase row: 2 sc in one of the sc
Repeat row 3, next rows, and increase row until chopsticks are fully covered or until desired length.

Dark Skies

The snow is falling fast and in swirls
White blasts of solid cold

It's like watching a still painting
with static disrupting the picture

Falling
to the icy ground
sticking
into inches of slippery mess
boot dirtying black icy tracks
foot-printing into my white tiled floors
little puddles forming around each shoe

Sliding and bumping into
each car
each person
each bike
smashing
and
falling

Ugh snow

but

Because of the
snow
Christmas music is
now playing...

so

Maybe snow isn't ALL bad.

Fighting: What is it Really About?

Writing club is still going strong! Tonight was our 7th meeting. Every Sunday, we have like 7-9 participants, some are regulars, some are first timers. It is a great club. The strength of this club lies in the mixture of voices teachers and students freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors everyone learning from each other strengthening their English skills by writing, speaking, and listening as well as working on creativity.

This semester we have been working on short writing exercises to improve specific skills like writing metaphors, describing detail using the five senses, shrinking big ideas into smaller ideas, brainstorming, using random words to motivate a poem, and looking at photographs to inspire.

We have just been writing, not editing.

Tonight we worked on dialogues, had a guest speaker from number 2 middle school, a teacher from Canada.

Next semester, I am hoping to expand the writing club such that each student will be a leader presenting a writing lesson to the other club members. Also, hopefully we will start writing longer pieces that will be written, re-written, edited, then self-published. Maybe we could even have a reading party to promote our book.

I am not a fiction writer. I rarely write dialogues. I love writing club because it helps me get out of my writing box and even if the writing is poor, one has to start somewhere. This might be one of the very first dialogues I have ever written. It is awfully cheesy, but if read out loud is quite a fun expressive read. Reading a dialogue out loud I can put in the tone and the mood, but how does one do that with written words?

I need practice and tips.
I need examples.
Your mission if you are willing to accept it is, write a breakup dialogue.
Accept the mission.
Write me something.

It's Not Really About the Flowers

John walked up to Anne and gave her a big hug pulling a red rose out from behind him saying, "So Happy Valentine's day beautiful. What do you want to do tonight?"

"Oh John. You know how I hate Valentine's day. It is just a day for stores and restaurants to trick the masses into spending gobs of money."

"But Anne..."

"I can't believe you spent money on a rose! They are so expensive and will probably be wilted by tomorrow."

"But Anne..."

"You know I hate romantic things, and we're poor college students. You don't have any money. Why spend it on a stupid dead flower?"

"But Anne..."

"John, you and I are just so different. We value such different things. You are into that whole romantic love thing. I'm more practical and logical. It just makes me so mad that you waste money on stupid things like flowers."

"But Anne..."

"But what John? What? What do you want? I just can't take it anymore. We never have anything to talk about. All you do is watch boring sports. You spend money on worthless things."

As Anne handed the rose back to John, turned her back on him, and walked away, she couldn't hear John as he said, "But Anne, I love you."