Good Weather = High Morale

A funny thing happened today in Wuhan. It was a really nice day. The air was warmer, the wind was calmer, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It's weird how much of an effect a blue sky can have when you don't see one nearly as often. There's a certain visceral pleasure to it, like that of little kids watching a man fall down repeatedly. You can't always predict when it'll happen again, but you're always hoping and waiting for next time.

Of course, all of this lasts only until something goes wrong, or not according to plan. Today, it was the projector. Most of my lessons are taught using PowerPoint, as the students respond better to visual aids like photos and videos. Plus, it's always good to show them the text as you're speaking. Unfortunately, the classroom technology is about as reliable as the Chinese food industry. (Kidding. I assure you, the food is plenty safe.) Anyway, the students eventually got it to work, which was great, since I was having a hell of a time trying to find a key to another classroom. You'll be glad to know that things went pretty smoothly after that. Problems here have a way of working themselves out, and most things in China seem to be out of my control, anyway.

When I wasn't teaching, I spent the day lesson-planning (mostly continuing our discussion of Halloween), eating, grocery shopping, and helping the Zhongnan University Shakespeare Club with their rehearsal. I'm headed off to bed, so I'll close with a few pictures from our Halloween gathering a couple of weeks ago.

From top left: Jim, Cori, Gabriel, me, Avi, Steven, Marguerite, and Maggie; Bob and Maggie (who look like they might've been drinking, but really hadn't); me, in my bad butler costume.

Election Day (Sort Of)

It's Wednesday morning here, which means it's Tuesday night in the U.S., and that means I'm glued to my computer screen waiting for the numbers from the exit polls. I thought I'd switch things up and write a blog post in real time, as it all unfolds. I didn't sleep very well last night, not because of any election anticipation or nightmares involving the outcome--I just don't sleep regularly in China. Everyone's just waking up here, and I don't have much to do at the moment (there's no class today on account of the sports meet, which you may remember was postponed last week due to rain).

In spite of, or because of, the fact that we're all so far away, the other teachers and I are taking great interest in what happens over the next several hours. Bob, the political science major, is following along especially closely, and were he to teach class right now, he'd be forcing his students to watch as well, in lieu of an actual lesson. In case you were curious, I did try to vote absentee, but my ballot never got to me. I'm not really sure what happened, and I'm not happy about it, but I am aware that it won't make much difference in the end. Still, there is something to be said for political participation.

I try not to push the students to support one candidate over the other. When they asked me who I'd vote for, I usually just sidestepped the question. By and large, the ones I've talked to favor Obama, in keeping with the general trend overseas. Their reasons are many and varied, and sometimes they're as simple as "McCain's too old." Not sure they really have much at stake, anyway. I assume there's only a passing interest on their part.

I'm going to get back to the coverage until I'm satisfied with the result, or until I find something better to do with my time off. The image above came to me by way of my friend Spencer. Enjoy.

POST-ELECTION UPDATE: For a global perspective, visit

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/reactions-from-around-the-world/

Never Mind

Hey, uh, forget what I said about sports week. All that stuff about days off, hanging out, soaking things up...yeah, that's not happening. I found out early this morning, a few hours before my Wednesday classes normally begin, that I would in fact have to teach the rest of the week. This is why you don't schedule weather-dependent holidays. It's like a snow day in reverse. Right before the sports meet was set to begin, weather that would probably be a tropical storm by Chinese standards moved in over Wuhan. Nothing big, but enough to ruin your day.

Wildly unprepared, I went ahead and taught class, anyway. I can't say it was the most enthusiastic lesson, but we did talk about Halloween, so at least it's topical. The freshmen, being new to "Oral English" classes, are not familiar with it, as the sophomores are. Naturally, I talked about various customs and costumes. At the end, I passed out Hershey's Kisses™ on the condition that they come up to me and say, "trick-or-treat." That seemed to go over well. I'm teaching sophomores the next couple of days, so I'll have to try and throw something together. We'll see what happens--they can be a tough crowd sometimes. Maybe I'll write a lesson on how China snatches away your holidays. I'm guessing that won't go over as well.

It's That Time Again

My goal in maintaining the blog is to update at least once a week, so I'm doing my best to keep up. Looks like I'm due for another entry. I haven't taken any trips or gotten new tattoos in recent weeks, but I can think of one or two things with which to regale you.

Another Chinese holiday is upon us. This one, though, seems to apply only to universities. It's some kind of sports week here at CCNU, so, later in the week, while the students are off competing in the name of school pride, I'll be taking a couple of days to soak up Wuhan with the other teachers. Cori's birthday is on Thursday, so we'll be getting together with her to celebrate. As you know, Halloween is also coming up. I don't think people are aware of the holiday, unless they've learned about it from a foreign teacher. Needless to say, I will be among a select few in costume this Friday. I'm sure I'll draw a lot of looks from the locals, but that's no different from any other day.

As I said, I didn't take any major trips lately, but there are ways to stay busy. I've started teaching freshmen in addition to sophomores, plus the office hours, learning a little Chinese, and helping out with the Shakespeare Association at Cori's school when I can. They're doing an abridged version of Twelfth Night. More to come on that. Recently, I made it over to a Taoist place of worship not too far from campus. Taoism, as I learned, advocates a kind of "going with the flow," a way of letting events unfold naturally. It was a pretty enlightening experience, and we had Maggie and Jo, our Chinese friends, graciously acting as tour guides. Maggie was also nice enough to act as negotiator/translator on a trip to a fabric shop, since some of us were interested in having garments made. It's always helpful to have friends who are native speakers, and they're both fun people.

I'll leave you with a few pictures, compliments of Lao-tzu.

The Entrance.

Steven walking into one of the many buildings on the grounds.

The familiar ying-yang symbol, important to Taoist philosophy.

A "W," for some reason.
Looking down from some old stone steps.

Maggie and Bob across. They're going up as I'm going down.

This one might be a library. I don't know, we didn't go inside.

Fact

Chinese LOVE basketball.

Chinese. Basketball. Yao Ming.

Fun with YouTube

I've been playing around on YouTube lately, as it is full of useful teaching tools.

Among the things I've found are some clips of Wuhan and greater China that I think are enlightening. I'd like to share a few.

Sometimes, Chinese traffic doesn't make sense.


This is how I cross the street.


This is a guy in Wuxi trying to get to a McDonalds. Note the motorbikes.


This is the train station I left from to go to Beijing.


This is actually a spot at CCNU on my walk to class.

R&R in the PRC

I have returned from my sojourn to Beijing. That said, I’ll give you a brief background on why I went there in the first place. Last week was the National Day Holiday, for which most people get two or three days off. Though I didn’t teach class during the week, I technically got three days off, since Monday and Tuesday classes were taught the weekend before. You don’t really see make-up classes on weekends in the US, but it works for them. Anyway, National Day comes every year on October 1st, the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949. Basically, it’s Chinese 4th of July.

I had always intended on going somewhere for the week, and after some internal debate among the other Augustana teachers, who ultimately decided to explore Wuhan, I decided to buy a ticket to Beijing and meet up with a bunch of the other local foreigners. They were headed there for the Modern Sky Festival, which featured various hard rock/punk bands. I was out for some adventure and money-squandering, so I went to the ticket agency, where they eventually sold me a ticket.

I had thought that getting to the train station and boarding the right train would be complicated, and that everything after would be golden. On some level, I was correct. Getting there, finding my way on board, was a small victory. Then I remembered that the Chinese really have no concept of “personal space.” (It’s not uncommon to see arms around shoulders and hand-holding among friends, as well as people elbowing their way through crowds.) I paid for a hard sleeper, a bed in a compartment of six, but I really only paid for the privilege of sleeping in it. Passengers had no compunction about sitting down next to me, putting their feet up, etc. It’s just a different mindset. I got used to it, but the length of the ride was brutal. The linear distance between cities is roughly the same as Chicago to Philadelphia. Cori’s train took ten hours to get to Beijing. Mine took seventeen. She got in Wednesday at 7 AM, and I got in three hours later. They were only a couple of minutes from leaving when I showed up. It would’ve been a long ride back, but with a little patience from friends, we all made out just fine.


Highlights from the two or so days I spent there include two trips to the music festival, which was really cool, and a few notable Olympic landmarks. I couldn’t go without seeing the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube, and judging from past conversations, I think everyone was expecting me to get there at some point. We got from place to place by taxi and subway. The subway was sort of confusing, so it was mostly taxi. The hotel was comfy, the food was good, and the city generally felt clean and modern. I spent about as much as I thought I would. Also, I finally broke down and went to McDonalds. Amazing how the Big Mac never changes.


I would’ve stayed longer, but there wasn’t much wiggle-room on tickets, since hundreds of millions of people travel during the holiday. Mercifully, the ride back took about twelve hours, but we were in seats this time, and it got a little cramped. Overall, it was an exhausting trip—the best kind, really—and it’s good to be back home in Wuhan. Even if I do have a full week of teaching ahead.

P.S.- I changed the blog settings to allow anyone to post comments.