Picture of the week!

So it's everyone's favorite time of the week again - and this time 'round we've got some doosies.

First and foremost, lets talk about bags again. Those of you who have become faithful to my blog may remember a comment about street food and how EVERYTHING comes in little plastic bags, even soup. Well this past weekend in Qingdao we saw something which expanded the definition of everything. You guessed it, beer in a bag. Since the brewery is right there and readily accessible, unlike most of the beer we have found in China, Qingdao has beer on tap, and many small restaurants are able to provide this fine service - whats that you say? you want your beer to go? WHY OF COURSE! LET ME JUST GET A PLASTIC BAG.


My second pic(k) for this week, and my personal favorite, also hails from the city of Qingdao. Some of the things which we have been missing here in China as a group are the simple things... Some nice ambient jazz at a restaurant, maybe a cup of coffee, pizza, a nice beefsteak... like I said, the simple things; what's that you say - this place has jazz, pizza, coffee, simple meals, AND beefsteak?!? SIGN ME UP!It's also worth noting that JAZZBEEFSTEAK was located on the European Style Street, noted below...

That's all for now. We're heading to Shanghai at the end of the week for five days, so there may be a lull in material, but have no fear! I have high hopes that Shanghai will create not only marvelous stories, but many, many marvelous pictures.

Qingdao

So this weekend as some of you may already know, Rachel, Olivia, Lucy, Eliza and myself (Karrin stayed back and made sure Qufu didn't miss it's foreign teachers) all hopped a Friday afternoon bus and took the five hour ride to Qindgao, the famous city by the bay. What we had heard about the Qingdao up to the point of us actually visiting, was that it was very famous for beaches, it was beautiful, the Olympic sailing events took place there, and last but certainly not least, that it was the home of Tsingtao beer. Additionally we had heard that the city, formerly a German occupied city had an interesting blend of Bavarian and Chinese architecture, which proved true for the most part. As we walked through parts of the old city, the European influence was unmistakable.

Oh, and one more thing - our brief visit to Qingdao mysteriously coincided with the opening of the 19th annual Qingdao International Beer Festival, but we'll get to that in a minute.

First things first - getting there. Earlier in the week we all took students to the bus station to help us buy tickets, without any real trouble. I went last and was lucky enough to snag the last ticket for the 2:30 bus. We arrived at the station with plenty of time to spare - we were all in the terminal ready to go by 1:50, which by Chinese standards is ludicrously early for a bus (...so we were a bit nervous, it being our first bus trip without a translator). At any rate, as we sat in the station, watching everyone around us hurriedly get in lines at terminals and get on buses which didn't leave right away, we of course became worried that we wouldn't get good seats if we waited until 2:20 to board like our students had said. After fumbling with phrasebooks, pointing, grunting, and pantomiming our destination and time of departure we established that we should be leaving from terminal two, however the woman at terminal two kept telling us to sit down and wait, which got us even more nervous. Was she that person we had read so much about, trying to stick the foreigners with the bad seats? Knowing we didn't speak Mandarin, trying to squeeze the extra dollar out of us? Lucky for us, she wasn't pulling a fast one on us (that comes later in the trip) - she simply knew something we didn't. At about 2:20 (go figure) she comes over to the group of us, and says "Qingdao this way please" the five of us, relieved that we would finally be on our way, walked up to the gate, handed our tickets, walked outside to the buses, and continued to walk past all the buses... over toward the gate... and right for an old, rickety seven seater van. If only I had taken a picture of the van. At this point of course we were all thoroughly confused as to what was happening - were we really taking this rickety old thing all the way to Qingdao? Were they kidnapping us? ...oh well, no time for that now, everybody in the van. Luckily there were two other Chinese travelers with us, so we were generally sure they weren't in fact attempting to kidnap us, but it was still a bit unnerving. Turns out, the 2:30 Qingdao bus doesn't leave from Qufu, but rather it swings past on its way from another town. The rickety van pulls off the road next to the highway, the bus drops off the interstate and picks you up, and away you go. We of course took the last five seats on the bus (at least we had them was the feeling), and I ended up stuck in the very back with the middle seat (the one that opens up into the isle so when the driver slams on the breaks you fly all the way down the isle because there isn't a seat in front of you...), with two people on either side of me and no air vent. Did I mention it was a five hour ride? So it goes.

When we finally arrived in Qingdao after our long, terrifying ride (the driver was insane - even the Chinese passengers were angry and cursing under their breath) at about 8:15 at night. Our destination was a youth hostel we had located on hostel world international, however we neglected to have anyone translate the address and location into Chinese (why would we need to do that? It's just an address...) Taxi was the logical method of travel, and upon exiting the bus station we were greeted by a sea of them who we happily approached and began attempting the translation of our destination. Luckily Olivia's Lonely Planet guidebook had the address of the hostel in Chinese, but the cabby's didn't seem to have any idea on WHERE exactly the street was (this later made sense, once we realized exactly how massive Qingdao is...). Finally one of them seemed to understand our destination and held up a 5 and made the sign for 10, meaning he wanted 50 yuan to take us in his cab. Now is a good time for a brief lesson in the golden rules of Chinese cab drivers - always use the meter. always make sure they start the meter when you ENTER the cab (not keep it running from the previous fare). Make sure they actually know where they are going so they don't decide to drive around in circles to run up the meter. Upon realizing this guy wanted a very large sum of money for the ride we promptly walked away from the group of about 10 or so drivers who were all haggling over our fair and went to the street where other cabs would pull up every ten or fifteen seconds or so. Getting these cabs to take us was equally as difficult, but thanks to a very nice Chinese family who volunteered their English speaking daughter to translate for us, we made it (if i haven't mentioned it before now is a good time - in general, Chinese hospitality and kindness is unrivaled) to our "hostel."

I hesitate to call it a hostel, because as soon as we saw Kaiyue Youth Hostel, we knew it was going to be a good trip. The building itself is an old Christian Church from the 1920's - a five or so story building in the heart of old Qingdao. It was most a hotel attempting to disguise itself as a hostel, and charging you hostel rates. We had two rooms to our selves which were very comfortable and fully furnished, and we had our own bathroom (nicer than all of our bathrooms back here in Qufu). The picture is the room which Olivia, Rachel, and I stayed in. As you can see, not huge, but for a "hostel," it was fantastic.

The lounge/restaurant was the highlight a mood-lit room with big couches and personal booths, with a pool table lit with chill European style hanging lights, playing good ambient music, which blended well with the very relaxing water feature on the back wall made for a great atmosphere. The fare was the best part however - not only did they serve REAL drinks (not just Baijiu and beer), but they had pizza, french fries, western style breakfasts, the whole nine yards. We of course immediately ordered four pizza's which we promptly devoured, laughing hysterically. The hostel was full of other waigoren who were visiting for the festival and I'm sure they thought we were crazy - the pizza wasn't really that good, but to the five of us who had been away from anything resembling comfort food for almost four whole weeks, it was heaven. On Sunday when we left I took several photos of the lounge and upon returning to Qufu I attempted a Panorama of the lounge. It came out okay - well enough for you to see what the hostel lounge looked like.

After our pizza we decided to check out the nightlife and took a taxi across town to a place called The Lennon Bar" which apparently was where a lot of westerners liked to visit. It was pretty empty but there was a live band playing decent music, so we hung out for a bit before heading back to the hostel and eventually on to bed.

Saturday morning we woke up around 8:3o or 9 after sleeping peacefully. I tried the "American Style Breakfast" down in the lounge which was mediocre at best... the sausage was more rubber than meat, the "hash brown" was a silver dollar sized portion of something out of a freezer (which I found ironic because potatoes are abundant, and hash browns are one of the FEW things which they could very easily cook from scratch), but the eggs and toast were good. After I filled up on breakfast and the girls had their coffee we headed out to see the sights of Qingdao. We had a map with us and decided to try our luck at walking for a bit, and wound our way through the streets and eventually made our way to the coast. Qingdao has some cool things to see, as witnessed below: I Think my favorite is the sign explaining that it was in fact a "European Style
Street..." The picture of the skyline doesn't do the city justice - this is actually only a small section of the western part of the city. The much newer and much nicer central part of the city isn't pictured. I did However very much enjoy the stark contrast of the mountains rising high above the city just minutes from the water. I also really, really wish I had had climbing shoes, a week, and a whole lot of gear with me when I saw some of these mountains...

After a very fun afternoon enjoying the waterfront and surrounding parts of Qingdao, and after getting a delicious lunch at a place we found on the street, we decided it was definitely time for a visit to the beer festival. Who doesn't love international beer festivals? On our maps was the location of the "Qingdao International Beer City," which appeared to be a bit of a drive away, so instead of paying high taxi fares we took the number 4 bus which took us all the way across town to the beer festival - about a 45 minute ride. It was a very cool drive which ran along the southern border of the city (right on the water for parts) and gave us a very good feel for the layout of Qingdao and what it had to offer.

The beer festival was, in a word, fantastic. The "Beer City" is much like a fairground. Massive, filled with carnival rides, over priced food vendors, cheap fair goods (like hilarious beer hats), a giant statue of the world announcing your arrival at Qingdao International Beer City, and beer tents. Lots of beer tents. It was interesting to see the parents walking happily with their children to all the fair rides and events while being feet away from a MASSIVE tent where people were drinking themselves silly listening to techno at volumes beyond comprehension. There were about seven or 8 different German beer companies there, and we chose which ones to visit based partly on how loud it was inside their tent. We arrived at the festival at around 1:30 and wandered around for a bit, sampling food and just taking in the festival before exploring the beer tents themselves. There were a good number of westerners at the festival, however many of them European. The only other Americans we ran into were mostly college students studying abroad - however we never actually hung out with any groups of foreigners. Below is a picture of me holding a Keg of a delicious hefeweizen which we purchased at one point. It is important to note that the only beer you can get with any frequency in China is very light lagers, much like a Budweiser. It's better than that, but it's all the same style, so a change of pace was greatly appreciated. I sampled a delicious stout (well more of a brown than a stout) as well prior to the mini keg. We slowly tried different beers and enjoyed the stage shows of different tents for the better part of the afternoon, until about 5:00 in the afternoon or so, at which point we were all a bit weary. This turned out to be only the beginning of our experience at the beer festival - when it seemed as if we were all getting to the point of retiring back to the hostel for a nap followed by an excursion exploring the other nightlife options of Qingdao, a funny thing happened... Walking through one of the tents, we began to notice a startling increase in the crowds. Tables were filled - everybody was drinking. And sure enough, exactly what we had read about began to happen... tables of Chinese businessmen, in varying states of intoxication, began standing up whenever we drew near, began shouting and waving at us at the top of their lungs, and immediately either pouring us glasses of whatever beer they were drinking, or just skipping the middle man and handing us the pitchers and running off to buy new ones. This went on from about 6 to 10. I danced alot, Eliza was interviewed by some Chinese news station, we were challenged to more gambei's (bottoms up toast, usually put forth in a very loud yell, kind of like GAMBEEIIIII!!!, which it is of course extremely impolite to refuse, especially if your host is providing the drinks...) than I'd care to count. we somehow managed taxi's back to the hostel, the girls stayed down in the lounge talking with some people from Shanghai, I went to sleep, and that's all that needs to be said about the Qingdao beer festival...

The next morning Lucy and Eliza caught a 7:50 am bus back to Qufu, due to obligations back at Qushida. Rachel, Olivia, and myself slept in and took the 3:40 bus, after of course visiting "technology street" so Rachel could get an external hard drive (a ridiculous street dedicated to back alley computer vendors selling motherboards out of piles on the street mixed in with big box stores featuring name brands such as Lenovo, Apple, Dell, etc.). The bus ride home was in itself uneventful - long, however not as painful (we all had decent seats this time). The fun began when we arrived in Qufu...

Or at least the outskirts of Qufu. Remember how the bus picked us up before on the side of the road on the outskirts of town? Well this time we were prepared - we figured they might pull the same stunt on us, and sure enough the bus pulled up along side the side of the road and the driver and his assistant gruffly pointed out the door and made grunting noises indicating we should get off. The only problem with this however, was there wasn't the rickety old van to take us into the city. There was however a single car with a driver who came over and began gesturing at us to come over and get in, and the bus driver(s) almost insisted that we do so. Our initial thought was that there were only three of us this time, so why send a van when you could just send a car? But wait - what about the other seven Chinese passengers who just got off the bus too, and who after a heated and angry discussion with the bus driver decided to walk into the night toward the signs pointing for Qufu? Oh hell...

By this time of course we were already halfway in the car with our bags in the trunk and before we knew what was happening we were driving away, luckily toward Qufu. The driver of course wanted 40 yuan to take us the remaining distance into the city. Rachel called one of her students who has been extremely helpful at a variety of different times here in Qufu, and we handed the phone to the driver so we could figure out what the HELL was going on and to figure out whether or not we had just been kidnapped.

She talked him down to 30. He took us right to the front gates of the college, probably would have been about a 15 - 20 yuan cab ride, so it wasn't terrible... but we definitely got the shaft. The bus was supposed to of course drive us all the way into the city, which was why the Chinese passengers were so upset. John, our guru and all knowing master when it comes to Qufu (graduated Skidmore in 2004, has been in China off and on since, however now he works about 45 minutes away in another city), said it was probably sketchy bus drivers and the guy in the car was probably a friend of theirs. So not everybody is all about showing hospitality. All in all though I've had FAR more positive experiences than negative ones, and it makes for a good story. The weekend as a whole was amazing - I loved traveling and can't wait for next week when the six of us will travel to Shanghai and meet up with Travis and Carrie, two more Skidmore teachers who are in the south of China.

Well that's all for now, sorry this was such a long post! Gives you all something to read off and on for a few days... keep you busy.

Picture(s) of the week

Yesterday we took a day trip to the bustling city of Jining - a very fun little day trip complete with a wedding photo booth blasting amazing techno located conveniently in a car dealership, a beggar physically pushing at us with her cup in an attempt to beg for money (a strange experience), finding a DVD for sale entitled "HEROIC WOMAN WITH GUEST," And a really upscale coffee establishment which was insanely expensive for a half pot of coffee, but apparently it was worth every penny (I don't drink coffee but everybody else does).

The picture of the week award however has two winners. First, in honor of my last post entitled "the contrast" a picture of an Adidas store next to what appears to be some sort of old world gate/entryway which still stands in the middle of an urban jungle. The second winner is a picture of some, "baller ID bands." If I were a baller, I'd want to wear these sweet ID bands...

The Contrast

For the past few days I have been trying to figure out how to capture an image, a moment, an event which exemplifies my new Chinese life, and I haven't been able to do it. There are so many small things which, after experiencing them once, it is difficult to remember why we ever noticed them in the first place. Adaptation has been paramount to survival - which is something that I think we all knew coming into this, and really, is one of the reasons we agreed to take such an adventure, but there is no preparation that can be done for this adventure (Well okay, learning Mandarin would have been moderately decent prep, but such is life). I know that myself and the other waigouren (foreigner, for those who don't know) are loving every minute, and because of that I've been trying to capture why it has been amazing but I'm really not sure it can be done.

On our way to the second banquet of the week last night, I decided that the best way to show my life was not by taking pictures of the strange juxtapositions of old and new, wealthy and poor, familiar and unfamiliar, which I encounter on a daily basis, but rather attempt to describe the few things which have become commonplace in my life day to day and week to week, in a feeble attempt to show you all a bit of what Qufu is like.

The daily lunch routine which the four of us have slipped into typically involves an array of street vendors located just outside Xintan's main gate - the same carts are there day in and day out, a large cluster of push carts, three wheeled bicycles with large coal cookers on the back, tents with tables and stools (I'll have to take a picture of a Chinese stool, they're about a foot off the ground, hardly large enough for your butt, and somehow comfortable), fruit dealers, women frying strange looking spam skewers, a cart with about 10 soup pots, and a random smattering of other foods. An interesting side note - all things are given to you in a small plastic bag. Imagine when you go to the grocery store - the little bags which they put the meat in so its separate from the other food? yeah, imagine a clear bag a bit thinner than that, and there you go. And when I mean you get everything in these bags, i mean EVERYTHING. including soup. We don't buy soup on the street, mostly because it comes in plastic bags. Anyway, so the four or five different options which we have deemed safe to eat (this is an arbitrary distinction, based mostly on taste as apposed to any health concerns which may be present) have become a constant rotation. First and foremost is what we endearingly call the "bing," or more accurately, it is a "Jidan Bing." It consits of an egg scrambled in a wok with green onions, carrots, and cabbage placed inside a warm piece of flat bread (very similar to a pita) with a red bean sauce on the inside - it costs about 1 quai 5, or roughly 21 cents. Another staple is bao zi (pronounced kind of like "bowza"), which is similar to a steamed dumpling - they come in a wooden tray called a jin - 10 pieces to a jin. Along with it comes a bowl of soup which we have named "snot soup," because it has egg in it which resembles snot, and the first time we ever ate there Karrin and myself witnessed the lady making the dough blast a big snot rocket onto the sidewalk in the middle of kneading dough. You learn to ignore the little stuff that normally would gross you out, I guess. Third, there are two carts which sell what we have dubbed the giant spring roll. It's like a burrito, but filled with shredded vegetables, very similar to a spring roll. Finally, one of my new favorite vendors is a noodle and fried rice guy - he has his coal heated wok, a bucket of noodles, a tub of rice, and three bags of vegetables - usually shredded carrots, potatoes, and cabbage. You point to which one you want, he fries it. Can't go wrong for 2 quai.

The downside to street food is the oil. Everything is oily. At the banquet last night the president of the college asked us if we thought Chinese food was too oily - I responded by saying if you seek out balance with fruit it's manageable, but there is no denying the excessive amounts of oil which you find in everything.

Dinner typically is a much more complicated affair - most restaurants, however delicious they may be, have old menus written entirely in Chinese. Luckily, we have a conversion chart given to us by one of the foreign teachers at Qushida who has been here for 15 or so years. Even still, pointing to dishes they may or may not have, stumbling with the phrase "what do you recommend?" (also very dangerous to ask, we've decided - you never know what you're going to get)

Then there is the ubiquitous Chinese banquet. We've had the pleasure of two of these this week, and they consist mostly of everyone sitting around a table filled with enough food to feed the party three times over (this is the tradition, if the food gets anywhere near being gone, they immediately order more - leaving food on the table is polite and indicates you are full, so the more food which is left the more satisfied you must be... we try not to think about waste), eating and consuming large amounts of either Chinese Wine (Baijiu), or beer. After the first banquet this week, I decided to make a permanent transition to beer only - I will quote one of our closest Chinese friends for an explanation as to why: "Drinking is very important to Chinese culture... it's almost like a competition, wouldn't you agree?" ...Yes Peter, I would agree. The good news was that I was much more composed at the second banquet - after four years of college you get good at skulling 5 oz containers of cheap, light beer.

These banquets are usually held in very nice establishments, however one thing I have noticed they tend to be kind of sticky - the lazy susan's especially (everything here is served on lazy susan's by the way, and I highly recommend Americans adapt this concept because its amazing), and many of them have flies buzzing around them. The room last night had a beautiful vase off to the side with a fly swatter sticking out of it.

These are the types of contrasts I've become accustomed to: the snot rocket next to the dough, the flies buzzing over our heads at dinner with the president of the college, the peasants welding mattress frames on the street next to the hair salon, the fine layer of coal dust coating the window sills of the classrooms, the Audi whizzing past the three wheeled tractor spewing black smoke and pulling a trailer full of mortar or hazardous materials or apples or some combination of the three. I don't know if this really does any justice to daily life in Qufu, but hopefully it's a glimpse.

So that's all for now - we just got paid yesterday (I'd like to point out that I have lived comfortably on the 100 dollars which I converted in the airport until now), so a grocery shopping expedition is in order. Happy Mooncake Festival!

Thank Goodness for the Group

So to step back a bit, I can't remember if I mentioned who all I am with here in Qufu - at Xintan College, the specific campus I am at, are Rachel, Olivia, Karrin, and myself. Just across town at Qufu Normal University (Qu shi da - pronounced choo shu da, but said quickly... don't hold out that double "o") are Eliza and Lucy. Also, there is another blog which is for ALL of the Skidmore teachers (located at www.skidmorechinadiary.blogspot.com), which I don't post to as often as this one (you guys are cooler and post better comments), but that's what I refer to below.

Much like Karrin, Olivia and Rachel commented before me, I have been experiencing the same, cries of haaaloooo!!!, the awkward stares, and the mild culture shock (Although I will say the attention certainly plays to my narcissistic side...). As I read through their posts and hear their interpretations of the events I remember from any given day, it has really struck me how much we are going to rely on each other as a group this year. As amazing as this experience is, when it comes to moral support and needing someone to understand, we are hopelessly alone in this foreign place. The good news is we all get along great and for the most part have similar interests - although being the only guy between Xintan and Qu shi da (Qufu Normal where Eliza and Lucy are) has definitely been interesting at times - my off color jokes and obscure movie references just don't mesh as well as they used to with "the boys."

That being said, I'm excited what the year holds in store for us and our group - I've always been the type of person to want to venture out on my own; to dive in head first with no safety net - but I've got to say, having people to fall back on has been amazing. We had a venting session last night about how much we miss things like endless stacks of pancakes at IHOP. We went and bought Oreos (I hardly ever eat Oreos in the states). We stumbled our way through a Hot Pot dinner (very amazing, by the way) together. All of these things have been so much more enjoyable with people who you can relate to.

This weekend is the Mooncake Festival (mid-autumn festival) - if you are away from home and family, you are supposed to look up at the moon and remember your family. They also make special biscuity sweet bread called "mooncakes" which you of course eat during the festival, in remembrance. So to everyone back home, happy mooncake festival from Qufu!

First two days of classes (for real!)

So I'd like to start off by thanking everyone who has been leaving comments - unfortunately I haven't found a good way to respond to them yet here on Blogger, but I promise I'm reading them!

Today was my second day teaching, and it's definitely been eye opening. I meet with each class once a week for two hours (well, two fifty minute periods with a 10 minute break in between), and the two sections that I've taught so far have gone really well. After introducing myself I had the students interview each other and then introduce their friends, partly to get to know them a bit better, but mostly to gauge their level of English comprehension. Currently all my students are 3rd years, and I've been very impressed with their level of understanding. I can speak almost completely normally - I think the only thing I've been doing different is speaking a bit more formally.

Anyway, so following all the introductions I explained briefly what I expected of them as a class, what they should expect from he as a teacher, and all that other happy fun stuff which never was of much interest to me either. The last half of class was devoted to a discussion of the movie "Sneakers," which I showed as my first movie on Monday. I of course, chose Sneakers before I realized of my 140 some odd students in the 4 sections of Movie Class, only 15 were male... Which is not to say the girls didn't like it, but lets be honest - it's kind of a guy movie (Although I highly recommend it to anyone who has not seen it). I had asked them to write down five things which they either had questions about or didn't understand from the movie, and this was the basis of our discussion. You never really understand just how many nuances and small (yet very, very important) plot twists a movie has until you realize someone didn't understand what it meant when Robert Redford asked about somebodies shoes and the kid replied "expensive."

One very interesting comment/question which arose today in discussion involved the role of a Russian character in the movie. A young girl asked me, "It seems that in many American movies, Russia, China, and North Korea are portrayed as Dangerous. In light of this, do Americans actually feel that these countries are Dangerous?" I saved this one for last... mostly because I was attempting to think of some tactful way to ease past this direct conversation so early in the semester (Remember this was the first class with this group)... My ultimate comment was something along the lines of, "Well Russia wasn't actually bad in the movie, because Marty (Robert Redford) went to Gregor (the Russian) for help, and If Americans thought China was dangerous they wouldn't let me come and teach here now would they? ...We'll save North Korea for another day."

All in all I think its been going very well, however I think teaching the same lesson plan four times a week is going to get a bit old... Such is life.

On a completely unrelated note, I love my students names. Aside from the standard names of Lisa, Joyce, Cleo, Flora, Briony, and Melody, are a few more creative names... I'm particularly fond of Freshman (prefers to go by F.M.), Rain, Ashby, and Forca.

Rachel, another Skidmore teacher, defanitely wins the name game with "Zero," "Nothing," and "AppleTree"

It's been a great week all in all, we've found several restaurants which I know will become regular haunts (three to four people tend to eat for between 35 and 40 yuan... divide by seven equals awesome), I'm very quickly embracing the Chinese tradition of the afternoon nap (between 1 and 2:30), and I'm getting paid to watch and talk about movies. Awesome!


I'd also like to leave you with what I'll be calling from now on the, "picture of the week." This weeks winner is a T-Shirt explaining, "WEBREEZE intheparty SO YOUGET Champagne"

First day of classes (kindof)

Well Monday was the first day of classes, but for me not really... All I had to do was show a movie Monday night for my video classes.

My schedule works like this:

On Monday, I have the movie from 7:30 to 9:20 at night.
Tuesday, I don't have anything.
Wednesday I have one section (2 hour block) of movie discussion.
Thursday, one section of movie discussion.
Friday, two sections of movie discussion, one section of freshman oral English.

So Friday is my busy day - the freshman don't start however for another week or two (they all have military training). All in all it's about 12 hours a week in the classroom currently, however I might start teaching a class of my own creation about food in America (what is American food, where does it come from, why is Chinese food more American than McDonald's... stuff like that) but that would also not start for a week or so.

Anyway so my first day of classes wasn't very exciting - I simply had to show the movie. Ran into some minor technical problems at the beginning, but other than that it was okay. I showed Sneakers, because apparently the Chinese students love sneaky people who are tricky and inventive (perhaps a Thomas Crown Affair is in order...). I was a bit nervous about my choice at first, because several students asked me prior what the movie would be, and did not seem excited when they heard the choice, followed by a polite explanation of why they enjoy romantic comedies. Apparently the English department (where I teach) is overwhelmingly female - out of 130ish students who came to watch the movie, maybe 15 of them were men, and they all clustered together at the back. Even before the movie started, we were all hanging out outside (they didn't give me a key to the room), and all the female students were clustered near the door and filed in excitedly, followed by this very defensive looking group of male students... really funny to watch actually.

I'm pretty sure they all enjoyed the movie - I told them it was just for fun and that they weren't required to write down too many things they didn't understand, and at 9:20 when the class was supposed to end and we still had 30 minutes left in the movie, I gave them the option of leaving but everybody just kind of looked at me with this taken-aback expression on their face of, "why in gods name did you pause that?!?"

Aside from that life is going well - still having trouble communicating, most importantly when trying to order food. Also we keep forgetting to learn how to politely refuse, because rickshaw drivers are PUSHY. I'll be standing and waiting for the bus (there is a very convenient bus which runs all through town), and two or three rickshaws will roll up, the drivers will shout HELLO at the top of their lungs, point at their sweet ride suggesting I should get in, and putting up some random combination of numbers which can range anywhere from 3 to 15. Sorry guys, the bus costs 1 yuan and its waaaay faster. Maybe I should learn to say that in Chinese.

So I wouldn't call myself a successful English teacher yet - we'll see how this week goes. Wish me luck for Wednesday!