A Night Out

Boy do I ever feel like a horse's pa-toot.

For the past 10 weeks, I have been dreading my business English class. I did not enjoy teaching this class, and did not really take to any of the students - who are all seniors. All seniors in our university finish their courses early, so they can find a place to intern for their final semester. So, I gave final exams this week. I was so excited to not have to see these students anymore.

In order to help motivate the students to participate in class, I had an on-going competition for them. All the students were in teams. At the end of the semester, whichever team had the most points, got a free night out to Papa Johns. So last night, Michael and I met 10 of my students to take them out to Papa Johns (this is a lot nicer than it would be in the States, I promise). As I have said, I didn't really connect with any of these students, so I wasn't exactly excited about our night out.

I had the best time.

Turns out, these students are wonderful! We laughed and all had a really good time. During the course of the meal, they found out that I have been trying to find some shoes to wear in the winter, but haven't been able to find where to get them. So after dinner, they all (even the boys) took us shopping. They helped me find the perfect pair of boots. And not only that, they worked some magic as well. The man wanted to sell me the boots for 600 yuan (somewhere between $85 to $100). Those students (all 10 of them) argued and bargained with the man until he finally said he would sell them to me for 70 yuan (about $10). As an American, I would have never been able to get such a good price without their help!

At the end of the night, they hugged me and told me they would miss me. And I felt the same about them. We exchanged some information so that hopefully we can keep in touch. And at the end of the night I realized for the first time that I am happy to be in China.

Some Common Myths Debunked

Myth #1: All people in China wear pointy bamboo hats.

Fact: Very few people in China wear pointy bamboo hats - only farmers and manual laborers that spend a lot of time out in the sun.

Myth #2: China is a very rural country covered completely in rice fields.

Fact: Although China does have a great number of rice fields, it is also a very urban country. It's large cities are much like those in America - huge numbers of people, taxis and other forms of public transportation, lots of colleges and universities, and skyscrapers.

Myth #3: Everyone in China eats cat.

Fact: Although I cannot completely debunk this myth, I can say that as a vegetarian who lives in China, I have never eaten cat (to my knowledge), so that's at least one person.

Myth #4: Chinese people love MSG.

Fact: Okay, the fact is, Chinese people really do love MSG... they put it in almost everything.

Myth #5: You get free fortune cookies at the end of your meal at Chinese restaurants.

Fact: This might surprise you, but this only happens in America. I have been in China for 3 months now and have never been offered a fortune cookie at the end of a meal. Come to think of it, I've never even seen a fortune cookie in China.

This concludes this session of Common Myths Debunked... I will update you if I find any more truths here in this wonderful country we call China.

Student Spotlight

Well, this has not started out to be the greatest week in China. It has been raining for about 6 days straight - and it's very cold. Not a good combination. It's one of those times when you don't want to get out in the cold and rain, but you're tired of being cooped up in the house! I also just found out this morning that my Grandad (my last living grandparent) had a heart attack yesterday. He is okay, luckily he called my mom 2 days ago complaining about pains and she told him to go to the hospital - so he was actually in the hospital when he had the attack. I'm also a little bummed to be missing out on the holidays back home. But in an effort at some light-heartedness, I am going to introduce you to one of my students. He is a Freshman English major. His English name is W - yes, the letter W.

(W is the one in the middle - black shirt, big hair)

Contrary to how he may appear, W is actually very shy and a very good student. But you have not yet seen his distinguishing characteristic: his fingernails -

W's fingernails.

I have heard somewhere before that having long fingernails is a status symbol - you can only have long fingernails if you are wealthy enough to not have to do manual labor. If this is true, W is the richest person I know.

You Are Not Alone

I have been giving mid-term exams over the past couple of weeks. This has been nice for me; a little break while the students do most of the work. Well, some of them. They are supposed to give 5-minute speeches. I had some that did really well - prepared in advance, showed up on time, wrote the speech themselves instead of getting it off the internet, etc. I had some that did okay. I had some that just brown-nosed the whole time hoping to get a good grade - example: one student's topic was 'My Favorite Musician.' She said it was me... the first day of class I told them they could ask me anything; they asked me to sing. I sang one verse of 'You are My Sunshine' and evidently made such an impression with this young lady as to become her favorite musician - and some that probably had a really great speech, but I couldn't tell because I couldn't understand a word of their English. But my two "favorites" were the two young men who sang to me. One of them has only been to class once. I was slightly impressed that he showed up for the exam at all. His topic was 'Exercise.' The following is his speech:

There are two things people should do to better themselves: learn and exercise.

That was it. The remainder of the time, he decided to sing me a song in English, hoping this would improve his grade. It didn't.

But my favorite by far was from Juan (this is his "English" name, although he pronounces it Jew-Ann). He actually prepared a speech, but felt he needed to add something to improve it. He said, "Mrs. Bowen, it must be difficult to sit here all day by yourself and listen to our speeches, so I will sing you a song, and maybe it will improve my grade." Then he proceeded to sing "You Are Not Alone" by Michael Jackson. I was going to give him bonus points until I heard this part of the song: "I am here wiss you." Sorry Jew-Ann, no A for you.

I'm a Local

A lot of my 'big moments' in China tend to happen in the supermarket. Yesterday was no different. Michael and I find ourselves going to Wu Mart at least twice a week. (We both like milk, and they only come in 950 ml containers here...). We are used to people stopping to look into our grocery cart to see our selections. For some reason they are really intrigued by our food choices, although I feel they are not that strange - milk, oatmeal, yogurt, vegetables and rice. So I thought nothing of it when an older lady stopped to peak into our cart. But then she started pointing at my oatmeal and speaking in Chinese (which brings me to another point I must tell you about in a minute). Apparently, she was asking me - ME- where she could find something in the supermarket. I have taken this as an indicator of one of two things - either I've been in China too long (as now I'm giving directions to the native Chinese), or I've just been here long enough to be accepted as a local. Either way, it was nice to feel like the one who knew her way around for once.

Now my other observation. It has now gotten to the point that I can carry on a conversation with the people here, and I don't just mean English speakers. I don't even mean that I am speaking in Chinese. My Mandarin is very poor. I only know enough to order food and tell a taxi where to drop me off. I am speaking of instances where a Chinese person is speaking in Chinese while I am speaking in English, and somehow we are able to understand each other. For instance, Michael and I regularly go to the same selection of restaurants. The last time we went to one of our favorites, I went in and got our table while Michael went next door to get a drink. The waitress recognized me and began speaking in Chinese. I responded, "Oh, he's coming. He went next door to get a drink." And then she saw Michael coming in and nodded - maybe not knowing exactly what I said, but getting the general idea. Again, this could be representing one of the two options mentioned above.