What a week! Definitely a roller-coaster ride! From first meeting with students on Monday morning through Montana being down & out a couple of days to LuRue teaching the Hokey-Pokey 10 times in "business casual" shoes (as in screaming feet!) Seems like everyone was feeling the same, as there was next to no conversation on the way back to the hotel, even though the teacher Mrs. Zhao was with us and is always very enthusiastic.
Today our students were from Auto Trade & Auto Electronics. Almost all boys again, but a few girls in each class. Our team leader has told us that in their normal classes (often 80 or so students), many of them just sleep at their desks. Being a teacher in a required subject is very challenging. Montana and LuRue have improved their teaching tricks over the week, with students participating much, much more than before, but it takes a lot of energy!
That required a trip to the elegant mall down the street for a very expensive scoop of Baskin & Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip right after lunch. We discovered the most important Chinese word, so decided we had better commit the characters to memory. Excited guys running to climb a ladder for their ice cream, then happily jumping and skipping down the street afterward.
Montana immediately went to the fitness center for the treadmill, but LuRue flaked out on the bed to start this blog and to gear up for tonight. The team is going out to a nearby restaurant for dinner, after which some teachers will pick us up for an evening at the park. They've described it as a very beautiful place. This is only the first of many activities that they have planned for us. They are very excited about our being here...this is the first time this particular school has had any Global Volunteers. We couldn't possibly have any better hosts!
Baoli did as we had asked at lunch, giving us feedback from the teachers and from her observations of our classes. Even though we are already speaking as slow as molasses, we are still speaking too rapidly. When we can use the white board to write as we speak, or use a prepared chart, things go much better. So we have more things to prepare. But it is worth the effort when we see the students (most anyhow) actively participating, smiling and laughing shyly. We always try to get them to show us their Chinese teen dances and songs in the last few minutes of class (after the Hokey-Pokey). Now and then a brave student or two will actually do something. All are good at egging someone else on, but no one wants to be the one who will perform.
When Montana and LuRue got to the lobby a couple of minutes late for dinner (5:45pm), we couldn't find Don or Baoli anywhere...very strange!! They are always early. We waited & waited, & finally Montana started up the stairs to our regular dining room to see if we had gotten the information wrong, but then LuRue spotted Don coming down in the elevator (glass sides visible in the lobby) and Baoli came rushing in the front door with her 4-year-old son Jerry. Both full of apologies, but Montana and LuRue were happy to be first for a change. We walked around the corner from the hotel to a restaurant that serves a special dish...Yangrou Paomo, a Muslim dish. It requires breaking up two "English muffin" type biscuits (partially cooked dough) into soy-bean sized pieces, then the server takes the bowl away to fill it with very hot lamb (or beef) stew, which finishes cooking the dough, swelling it. It is served with garlic pickled in vinegar. Montana and LuRue split a serving and couldn't finish it. The meal included a salad that included sliced lotus root, crispy and delicious.
We were back at the hotel lobby by 7:00, the time we were to be met by two teachers from the college. They were taking us to the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda in south Xi'an, which was originally built in the year 652, though it has been rebuilt and repaired since then. There is a statue of the monk who traveled to India and brought back Buddhism. Seven or eight years ago, the farmland surrounding the pagoda was transformed into a very large park, which now contains a massive fountain display performing "dancing" water spouts with music, beginning at 8:30pm. There are colored lights on the trees, a small "train" that drives around the edge of the park for parents and children, lots of vendors selling every trinket imaginable, etc. Purists would not be pleased, but thousands (millions?) of people enjoy it tremendously.
Baoli had her son, and another of the teachers had also brought her 9-year-old son, so it was definitely like a family outing. The teachers treated Don and LuRue like the grandparents, always helping them up and down stairs, around obstacles, and explaining everything we were seeing. Right away, they insisted we all had blinking "bows" on our heads, which turned out to be helpful. Montana and Don are so tall compared to everyone else that it was easy to keep track of us in the dark.
After watching a lot of the fountain show, we walked to the south end of the park, passing many more vendor stalls. One of them was selling cotton candy, so they insisted we have one. Don and LuRue just took some of Montana's. Earlier they had bought a treat for us...a stick of strawberries and one of hawthorn berries, each coated with caramelized sugar. We also shared those, the strawberries being preferred.
The south end of the park seemed to be reserved for dancing...lots of it. As various kinds of music played, large areas were filled with people doing some sort of line dancing, another area for agile boys making complicated Michael Jackson moves, another area for teens and young people (mostly) to do a more modern line dancing to popular music, and the final area for the "senior citizens" to do old-fashioned dancing. When Don and LuRue did a few turns, they noticed that not only were the teachers taking photos, but quite a crowd of Chinese people were also snapping away. As one of the teachers commented later, "There are going to be a lot of new postings on You...? (some site that sounded like the Chinese version of Facebook)".
The teachers were absolutely delightful and fun to be with. We all had a great time! We got back to the hotel at 10:30, too late to do anything except for Montana to edit her pictures and for us to fall into bed for some much-needed sleep!
Montana and LuRue with
some of their many students
Today our students were from Auto Trade & Auto Electronics. Almost all boys again, but a few girls in each class. Our team leader has told us that in their normal classes (often 80 or so students), many of them just sleep at their desks. Being a teacher in a required subject is very challenging. Montana and LuRue have improved their teaching tricks over the week, with students participating much, much more than before, but it takes a lot of energy!
That required a trip to the elegant mall down the street for a very expensive scoop of Baskin & Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip right after lunch. We discovered the most important Chinese word, so decided we had better commit the characters to memory. Excited guys running to climb a ladder for their ice cream, then happily jumping and skipping down the street afterward.
The happy Chinese characters for ice cream
Montana immediately went to the fitness center for the treadmill, but LuRue flaked out on the bed to start this blog and to gear up for tonight. The team is going out to a nearby restaurant for dinner, after which some teachers will pick us up for an evening at the park. They've described it as a very beautiful place. This is only the first of many activities that they have planned for us. They are very excited about our being here...this is the first time this particular school has had any Global Volunteers. We couldn't possibly have any better hosts!
Baoli did as we had asked at lunch, giving us feedback from the teachers and from her observations of our classes. Even though we are already speaking as slow as molasses, we are still speaking too rapidly. When we can use the white board to write as we speak, or use a prepared chart, things go much better. So we have more things to prepare. But it is worth the effort when we see the students (most anyhow) actively participating, smiling and laughing shyly. We always try to get them to show us their Chinese teen dances and songs in the last few minutes of class (after the Hokey-Pokey). Now and then a brave student or two will actually do something. All are good at egging someone else on, but no one wants to be the one who will perform.
Montana performing with the students
When Montana and LuRue got to the lobby a couple of minutes late for dinner (5:45pm), we couldn't find Don or Baoli anywhere...very strange!! They are always early. We waited & waited, & finally Montana started up the stairs to our regular dining room to see if we had gotten the information wrong, but then LuRue spotted Don coming down in the elevator (glass sides visible in the lobby) and Baoli came rushing in the front door with her 4-year-old son Jerry. Both full of apologies, but Montana and LuRue were happy to be first for a change. We walked around the corner from the hotel to a restaurant that serves a special dish...Yangrou Paomo, a Muslim dish. It requires breaking up two "English muffin" type biscuits (partially cooked dough) into soy-bean sized pieces, then the server takes the bowl away to fill it with very hot lamb (or beef) stew, which finishes cooking the dough, swelling it. It is served with garlic pickled in vinegar. Montana and LuRue split a serving and couldn't finish it. The meal included a salad that included sliced lotus root, crispy and delicious.
We were back at the hotel lobby by 7:00, the time we were to be met by two teachers from the college. They were taking us to the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda in south Xi'an, which was originally built in the year 652, though it has been rebuilt and repaired since then. There is a statue of the monk who traveled to India and brought back Buddhism. Seven or eight years ago, the farmland surrounding the pagoda was transformed into a very large park, which now contains a massive fountain display performing "dancing" water spouts with music, beginning at 8:30pm. There are colored lights on the trees, a small "train" that drives around the edge of the park for parents and children, lots of vendors selling every trinket imaginable, etc. Purists would not be pleased, but thousands (millions?) of people enjoy it tremendously.
The fountain show
Baoli had her son, and another of the teachers had also brought her 9-year-old son, so it was definitely like a family outing. The teachers treated Don and LuRue like the grandparents, always helping them up and down stairs, around obstacles, and explaining everything we were seeing. Right away, they insisted we all had blinking "bows" on our heads, which turned out to be helpful. Montana and Don are so tall compared to everyone else that it was easy to keep track of us in the dark.
The south end of the park seemed to be reserved for dancing...lots of it. As various kinds of music played, large areas were filled with people doing some sort of line dancing, another area for agile boys making complicated Michael Jackson moves, another area for teens and young people (mostly) to do a more modern line dancing to popular music, and the final area for the "senior citizens" to do old-fashioned dancing. When Don and LuRue did a few turns, they noticed that not only were the teachers taking photos, but quite a crowd of Chinese people were also snapping away. As one of the teachers commented later, "There are going to be a lot of new postings on You...? (some site that sounded like the Chinese version of Facebook)".
LuRue and Don dancing with the blinking bows
The teachers were absolutely delightful and fun to be with. We all had a great time! We got back to the hotel at 10:30, too late to do anything except for Montana to edit her pictures and for us to fall into bed for some much-needed sleep!
Love the picture of you Mom! You look like the more modest version of a playboy bunny tearing up the rug!
ReplyDelete------Baskin & Robbins———y-u-mmmmm
ReplyDeletehow nice to have the opportunity to spend non-teaching time with local people