February 22nd: holiday lesson and mashing gears
[ posted by mcdeviltoast ]
Day 159
Woke in intermittent bursts every hour, my internal alarm clock's snooze button stuck. I got up at 8:30, blogged, went to class. All anxieties about forgetting my teaching savvy were unfounded. I got right back into it as if I had just been teaching yesterday. This week's lesson is half spring festival Q&A, half Valentine's Day catchup. I make ths students stand up and tell me five things they did on holiday, forcing myself not to get angry when hearing over and over "play football, play computer games, sleep, visit my realtives..." for even if it's the same ten responses, they are speaking English, and that's what the class is. It's not an essay contest, I'm evaluating their verbal English.
The apathy crew tried my patience a little. I had to take two kids' desk contents away to punish them, threaten them with being sent to the teacher's office. When I asked what boyfriends and girlfriends did on valentine's Day, one boy in the back did the thumb-twiddle gesture. I shook my head, tried not to crack up. Luckily none of the other students saw him. I had been worried about filling the time, but I never even got to the game part of the lesson, so perhaps next week I can reuse it.
After lunch, Jeni stopped by briefly and I gave her a hot cup of chamomile, showed her the ruan. Then Matt and I tossed the frisbee on the track bend for a while. The sun was out and it was super warm. I actually worked up a little sweat which felt awesome after such a period of wearing layers just to keep the extremities less numb.
After school, I rode to Dongzhou and was stopped by two Chinese college students filming a video. They had me tell what my plans for the new year are (in their limited English) and I said something to the effect: "I finish my contract at the end of June, then I'm flying back to America to work on music. That will be my focus for the new year and that's about it." They thanked me, gave me their email address, and I proceeded inside.
Mike, Heather and I tossed the frisbee on their field, basking in the sunshine as long as it was out. We stopped a little before sunset, and Jeni, Heather and I walked up to the music store to find out about ruan lessons. Only one guy knows how to play it amd he knows zero English. I've got a pretty rare instrument apparently. Looks like I'll have to teach myself.
Dinner at the tree dumpling place, at which we got into a camera war with a neighboring table. The guy thought he was stealthy taking a picture of us, then I blatantly took a picture of them, which he interpreted as open season on us. He had me take pictures with a couple members of his party before they left. I guess I was the hiriest and scariest specimen of the bunch.
We walked to find pumpkin cakes, picked up tiramisu on the way back, started figuring out what to do with the evening. We procured a crate of beer, but when we returned, Mike and Heather had conflict. Mike was adamant about watching a film in Heather's room because the fluroescent light was too institutional. Heather was adamant about watching it in Mike's room because his screen was too small. I tried to compromise by adjusting the lighting in Heather's room, but Mike came in, dropped off the crate of beer, left. Heather started to cry.
Those two are like brother and sister, I know they care about each other, but they seem to always rub each other the wrong way if they hang out for an extended period of time. I assured Heather, "It's not you. It's not him. Nobody's right, nobody's wrong. Everyone in this life is a gear, spinning around, and since we're all shaped different, sometimes the gears mash and make sparks. You two have butting personalities in some ways, but you work well in a lot of other ways, too."
Rhys and Jeni came in and we watched (wait for it) "The Cannonball Run." God, what a turd. An expensive star-studded turd. Some of the jokes were outdatedly racist, too. Burt Reynolds calling Sammy Davis Jr. a "chocolate monk?" Whoof. Dean Martin looked terrible. I think he was operating on a gin I.V. and little else. Afterwards, they started "Life of Brian" and I watched until my beer was finished, then pedaled home.
Woke in intermittent bursts every hour, my internal alarm clock's snooze button stuck. I got up at 8:30, blogged, went to class. All anxieties about forgetting my teaching savvy were unfounded. I got right back into it as if I had just been teaching yesterday. This week's lesson is half spring festival Q&A, half Valentine's Day catchup. I make ths students stand up and tell me five things they did on holiday, forcing myself not to get angry when hearing over and over "play football, play computer games, sleep, visit my realtives..." for even if it's the same ten responses, they are speaking English, and that's what the class is. It's not an essay contest, I'm evaluating their verbal English.
The apathy crew tried my patience a little. I had to take two kids' desk contents away to punish them, threaten them with being sent to the teacher's office. When I asked what boyfriends and girlfriends did on valentine's Day, one boy in the back did the thumb-twiddle gesture. I shook my head, tried not to crack up. Luckily none of the other students saw him. I had been worried about filling the time, but I never even got to the game part of the lesson, so perhaps next week I can reuse it.
After lunch, Jeni stopped by briefly and I gave her a hot cup of chamomile, showed her the ruan. Then Matt and I tossed the frisbee on the track bend for a while. The sun was out and it was super warm. I actually worked up a little sweat which felt awesome after such a period of wearing layers just to keep the extremities less numb.
After school, I rode to Dongzhou and was stopped by two Chinese college students filming a video. They had me tell what my plans for the new year are (in their limited English) and I said something to the effect: "I finish my contract at the end of June, then I'm flying back to America to work on music. That will be my focus for the new year and that's about it." They thanked me, gave me their email address, and I proceeded inside.
Mike, Heather and I tossed the frisbee on their field, basking in the sunshine as long as it was out. We stopped a little before sunset, and Jeni, Heather and I walked up to the music store to find out about ruan lessons. Only one guy knows how to play it amd he knows zero English. I've got a pretty rare instrument apparently. Looks like I'll have to teach myself.
Dinner at the tree dumpling place, at which we got into a camera war with a neighboring table. The guy thought he was stealthy taking a picture of us, then I blatantly took a picture of them, which he interpreted as open season on us. He had me take pictures with a couple members of his party before they left. I guess I was the hiriest and scariest specimen of the bunch.
We walked to find pumpkin cakes, picked up tiramisu on the way back, started figuring out what to do with the evening. We procured a crate of beer, but when we returned, Mike and Heather had conflict. Mike was adamant about watching a film in Heather's room because the fluroescent light was too institutional. Heather was adamant about watching it in Mike's room because his screen was too small. I tried to compromise by adjusting the lighting in Heather's room, but Mike came in, dropped off the crate of beer, left. Heather started to cry.
Those two are like brother and sister, I know they care about each other, but they seem to always rub each other the wrong way if they hang out for an extended period of time. I assured Heather, "It's not you. It's not him. Nobody's right, nobody's wrong. Everyone in this life is a gear, spinning around, and since we're all shaped different, sometimes the gears mash and make sparks. You two have butting personalities in some ways, but you work well in a lot of other ways, too."
Rhys and Jeni came in and we watched (wait for it) "The Cannonball Run." God, what a turd. An expensive star-studded turd. Some of the jokes were outdatedly racist, too. Burt Reynolds calling Sammy Davis Jr. a "chocolate monk?" Whoof. Dean Martin looked terrible. I think he was operating on a gin I.V. and little else. Afterwards, they started "Life of Brian" and I watched until my beer was finished, then pedaled home.
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[ posted by mcdeviltoast @ 2/22/2005 07:55:00 PM ]
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The dumbtronica act Montana & McDeviltoast, along with their friends, keep each other updated on their activities. Much fun having by all, and Pockys fear for their lives!