China: Day 6: July 10, 2010

We began today with some confusion getting our classrooms set up at the school. We arranged furniture, tried to get the handle on where our teacher partner’s rooms were, and got somewhat of an idea as to how this will all fit together. It is starting to seem much more clear. Two more days and “It’s show time!” We had the chance to see a few students walking on this beautiful Treble Clef walkway on the campus. It is so peaceful and lovely!

Most of the group decided to catch an afternoon ferry traveling two hours and go over to Macau (an island near Hong Kong.) After the sweaty morning, this sounded like more than I wanted to do. After lunch, I settled in for a nice two hour Skype talk with my husband catching up on the adventures abroad and at home. Dick reported in about the funeral of our dear neighbor, Charles who died just before I left on the trip. We both will really miss him, and it was sad for me to not be able to attend the funeral. Being in china was a valid excuse though.

The remainder of the afternoon passed with doing some lesson planning, reading a little, and then heading off to explore the neighborhood. I thought I was going to check out Wal-mart, but went another route that lead me through some interesting streets and in and out of some shops. I bought some light dinner items at a small grocery store, and just enjoyed looking at all of the products available. One thing that I am still not getting used to is not being able to read the labels which means you have to look a the pictures.

This can lead to some misunderstandings (brings me very much back to my days working at the adult literacy program!) Yesterday day I thought I was getting an orange Popsicle. It turned out to be red bean. Tonight I bought what I thought was a Minute Maid Limeade. Nope, it was Minute Maid aloe vera juice. Neither is these were my favorites….being able to ready labels is VERY useful!

Then there was time blogging as well as we are expected to keep a reflection journal as part of the research of this trip. I am writing a ton!

Nice to get a chance to catch my breath a bit. 30+ days is not a sprint. It is more of a super marathon. I learned when I was on a Fulbright trip to Mexico for a month that you sometimes have to opt out of something that could be cool and sleep. Just for your sanity. So this was one of those days. Maybe even early to bed. Hmmmmm. Good idea.

China: Day 5: July 9, 2010

Day 5: July 9, 2010

Did I mention the breakfasts? Still struggling with trying to figure out what is what. I don’t think I have

ever had corn on the cob for breakfast, of some of the combinations of friend dough. It is delicious (mostly), although I may buy a banana to bring tomorrow.

Half-day teacher training again today. Things are beginning to come together, but there are every so many questions that we have as to what to expect form our Chinese students. Are they used to working in groups? Yes, groups of four. Are they at all familiar with American culture such as Disney movies? Will doing these performances be familiar? Have they ever seen anything like readers theatre with scripts? Can these young children actually read English?
I did find out yesterday that Chinese school customarily have a two hour lunch where the children can go home if they want, or at school they eat in the classroom and then can go to the nap room and sleep, watch movies or play “quiet activities” out doors.

It was really inspiring to meet these teachers and hear about their enthusiasm. We were also encouraged by the principal to go on a Chinese journey with them.

We feel rather bad for the Chinese teachers. The reason that they are only available for half the day today is that it is last week of school and they have graduation tonight! Yipes, what a GREAT time to be in trainings. We saw the students lining up in an assembly as we arrived. (And probably interrupted what was going on…that wasn’t the best teacher’s manners…) But they are a beautiful looking crew. We will so enjoy all of these interactions with these young people.
I am very excited that I will be able to somehow share my How Baby Coyote Learned to Howl picture book with the children. Not quite sure how it all fits in, but we are studying Biomes (desert, jungle, grasslands, etc.) so somehow that will be part of what I bring to the table. We found out that the word Biomes was unfamiliar to the teachers.

In my teaching, all somehow has to lead to doing these performances at the end of each of the weeks. We have a HIGHLY ambitious schedule of three themes in three weeks. First week biomes, second career exploration, third week world cultures. Highly interesting yet trying to keep the age level and language acquisition in place.

Second day training was easier. Everyone was less nervous and things are falling into place.

The range in level of English ability of the Chinese teachers is also great. Some are quite fluent and some are so shy and reluctant to speak, especially in front of a group. When we did the go around ending activity at the teacher training where you could say something about how it has been so far, only one Chinese teacher spoke and she spoke of being very shy (she was the brave one!) And these are the adults!

We have had some little interactions with a few students at the school. Brave ones coming up and introducing themselves. They also have a range of English, form being able to have a conversation, so only answering to what is your name and how old are you? We will have to see what the real language skills are once we get them in our classroom.

Following another fabulous school lunch, back to the hotel to try to sort out what to do with a rare free afternoon. Ten of us gathered in a hotel room and poured over guidebooks and a several pages handout that a couple Chinese teachers made for us of what would be excellent things to do in the area. This type of group decision-making is crazy. We eventually worked it out that 8 of us headed out on a bus to go to a Botanical Garden. We were told it would be about an hour by bus.

After an hour, two of our friends got off the bus in down town Shenxhen City (truly an 14 million person HUGE city that went on and on). The remaining half dozen of us hung in there and got off where the nice driver and conductor indicated. We used the info on a scrap of paper given by our hotel manger Holly (all of the English speaking Chinese have American names). She was so nice to help us. Having where you are going written in Chinese is essential because you can’t count on AYONE speaking much English.

We got out at what we thought was Lake of the Immortals Botanical Gardens which we found out was a poor translation for Fairylake. It was a HUGE forest and highly beautiful. We headed up a long hill not realizing it wasn’t really a place you could walk without having a day. A VERY nice man stopped and offered us a ride (all six of us in his tiny car!) It turns out that he works at a research botanist at this park, for the past 8 years. As we spoke of being from California, we asked if we knew Quail Botanical Gardens because he knew the director there. This garden (about 30 minutes from our house in Oceanside) has a special interest in plants form China, so the director has been to this garden many times. What a small world!

This man then took us with him to look at the orchid and butterfly gardens. Beautiful and very lovely to have a guided tour for a very nice man. Then he drove us to the Buddhist Temple.
This temple was about 28 years old, built after religious freedom was allowed to come back to China. When were arrived, we were immediately filled with peacefulness. It really was so beautiful and filled with a combination of tourists and pilgrims. We were offered several sticks of incense with which to offer prayers. We followed the examples of others and lit the incense in a huge fiery little house, and then placed the burning sticks in a giant kettle. They were altars and Buda statues throughout the many levels of the lovely temple grounds. This was all quite moving, and I said prayers for our safe trip and for the students we will be working with.
Then, as we were contemplating the fact that we now might miss getting back in time for dinner, we were assisted by a lovely young woman (no English) and young man, Anson, excellent English. Anson allowed us to use his cell phone for us to call back to the hotel and let them know. Then he invited us to come and have dinner for free at the temple. It was like being invited back stage at Disneyland. We accepted and went into a tiny serving room where we got lovely Chinese vegetarian food and then were lead back to a dinning area where we got to eat and marvel at the kindness of strangers. What a great blessing! Before we left, we all bought little bracelets to remember this grand adventure. I also bought a string of Buddhist prayer beads that are so lovely.
Here is a little info about the garden:
“Shenzhen Fairy Lake Botanical Garden is located in the northeast suburb of Shenzhen, with Wutong Mountain, the highest peak in Shenzhen, in the east and Shenzhen reservoir in the west. The garden was established in 1983 and opened to the public in 1988. It is a renowned botanical garden and scenic spot integrating scientific research, popularity and tourism.

Covered with lush lawn and dotted with palm trees, Fairy Lake Botanical Garden presents a strong tropical landscape. In shady plants garden, insectivorous plants are on the look out for prey while brightly-colored Oncidium orchids look like gracious maids in an imperial palace performing beautiful dances…In the first rays of the morning sun, the ring of bells and the recitation of scriptures in the Buddhism temple fill people with deep veneration. In the setting sun, the garden is so picturesque and tranquil with the bright ripples spreading. On the lake and the green trees and pavilions reflected in the water… What a wonderful and intoxicating garden!”

We caught a bus back down the hill, walked through a pretty typical poorer neighborhood and then caught the correct bus back to our area (nearly a two-hour bus ride back home! What a grand adventure. Wow! Wow! Wow!

China: Day 4: July 8, 2010

The school we are at is YuCai Primary #4. It is a cutting edge, five-year old school that is so beautiful! It has such a beautiful theatre that we will be suing for the performances. And very nice classrooms and equipment. Everywhere in the building or little bilingual character signs encouraging polite, good behavior.

First day of teacher training which includes our Chinese teacher colleagues. There are twenty teachers who were picked to be part of this experimental process. They are from many parts of China originally, so this is quite a chance to get to know many different types of people.

The training is trying to get all of us caught up and on the same page in terms of teaching together.

A big task when you are crossing language and cultural barriers. We all cleaned up pretty well. No more tank tops and shorts but slacks and dresses and skirts. We need to look the part of distinguished foreign teachers. We were divided into our age level teaching groups and had the chance to begin building relationships with the Chinese teachers, as well as the people in our individual groups. I have a great group working with me: I have the performance aspect, Holley (a long term kinder teacher) will do reading and stories, Jake (young and enthusiastic teacher, who looooves music) has music, Jessica (young teacher with great classroom experience) has games, and Leigh (an artist, florist and wedding planner) has visual arts. Our Chinese teachers are: Michael, Billy, Yuki and Aileen (not their Chinese names….)

Th The Chinese teachers will each be assigned a group of children that they will follow through each day. They will also be our lifelines to understanding what we are supposed to be doing. We spent the day working really hard at cross cultural communication, plus just understanding all of the logistics of this highly complex, multi-disciplinary threes weeks that we have embarked on. It is exciting and sometimes nervewracking. Tomorrow will be another half day of training.

Still trying to get settled in as to what our days and routines will be. The truly serious jocks have found a fitness center to work out at. The shoppers are getting their beads set on where the deals and really fine dress shops are, massage will be a staple for some of us.

I am so far getting by on drinking a Folgers coffee singles in the morning for my coffee fix….not idea. There are some Starbucks, but not in easy walking distance. I will have to see those this all works out.

Being in China in some ways doesn’t feel real yet. But here we are!

China: Day 3: July 7, 2010

Actually Wednesday today (I thought yesterday was Wednesday.) sigh!

Today I woke up at about 4am, WIDE-awake. So as not to disturb my roommate, I took my camera and laptop into the bathroom and spent time downloading the first the photos and writing the first two days of my blog. Time rolls right around. As it turns out, I was not alone in the early rising. Several people shared this over breakfast. We should have had a party then.

Today, following breakfast, we will get a tour of the school that we will be working at as well as some other places in the neighborhood. We have a great HUGE map, all in Chinese characters which aren’t really that helpful. Getting oriented is tricky, but good.

My goal is to learn at least one new Chinese word or phrase a day. So far we have

Ni hao-hi or hello and

xiexie-thank you

Today’s words are:

qing-please

zaijian- goodbye

haochur-delcious

My husband Dic

k and I were able to work out the glitches of getting to talk on Skype. The 15 hour time difference is the trickiest. I thought I was calling him at a reasonable time last night. It turned out to be 4am his time…not so convenient. But on the other hand, we can have audio and video contact across the ocean. Thank of all the generations of travelers who left their loved ones and had o

n option for contact. Wow!

We ate our first real brea

kfast in China (and interesting combination of hardboiled eggs, white bread with peanut butter, really vile instant coffee upon request…and then egg cakes with corn and veggies in them, a really thin rice pudding without sugar, dim sum buns and some other things I can’t quite recognize.) Then, my great roommate, Jenny, and I took a three-hour after breakfast nap and got up on time for lunch. We will not starve on this trip.

After some technical difficulties with charging my computer, I talk with Dick on Skype again. What a treat! I was even able to hold up the map I had discovered and he could see with enough detail that he was able to follow the whole route. Amazing!

Then we went a

little bus tour of the area, finding out where the local Wal-Mart is, may beautiful parks, other stores of interest, a high school that we will be able t use their pools, and then we got the first glimpse of the school that we will be teaching at. It is call Yaci Primary school number 4 and it is the premier school in the area. Ab

out 1000 students go there, and it has an amazing facilities including a theatre that seats 700 people (at an elementary a school!) This is where we will be doing performances for the parents on the Friday nights of each week we ar

e teaching. The temperature is hot here, so we were sweating as we walked throughout the campus, but got to see classrooms, art and music rooms, even a ballet class in session. We all enjoyed seeing huge posters featuring our photos and info under each of us about our bios. We hope to get smaller copies of these as a

souvenir. They are VERY excited that we are here.

After dinner (another feast) 11 of us walked over to another massage place. This time I got a full body 1-hour massage for about $9.00. Not quite as nice a place as the last one, but still got to keep releasing the tension. They do even the full body massages in a ro

om with three other tables and without having you remove your clothes. Not much privacy, but feels a little bit safer when the staff speaks nearly no English.

Places are beginning to seem more familiar in the area. Navigating without being able to read street signs takes some getting used to. Several people have been lost for hours at a time. Hopefully, we are going to get some hand drawn maps with English writing on them, but not yet. Our hotel is a bit obscure, so even asking directions doesn’t necessarily get you back. And the directions may be in Chinese, which is limited assistance to most of us.

To bed at a little after ten and getting ready for the full day’s teacher training tomorrow. Time to get our grown up teacher clothes!

Just a note: I am able to get email on my gmail account which is Patti@pattistory.com if you want to contact me. That is pretty cool, too.

China: Day 2: July 6, 2010

Wednesday (although it is still Tuesday back home). Of course, there is the jet lag: what time is it REALLY? We arrived at 10am, and tried our best to stay up all day. Not an easy task despite how excited I was.

We are staying at the Shekou Merchant Hotel Training Center. This is truly a traditional Chinese hotel with a staff which has very limited English. The manager told us when were gathered for our first meal here that we were the first large American group staying here. They are working very hard at understanding our needs and taking good care of us. It leads to some funny conversations, though. People acting out what they need, like more hangers. Some are struggling to get used to the VERY hard mattresses, almost like sleeping on just the box springs. So far we haven’t been able to sort out whether or not the tea which is drunk with every meal has caffeine or not (I’m thinking it does).

We will be eating both breakfast and lunch at the hotel dinning room nearly every day, and every meal is a feast! Huge platters of food served family style around three large tables. So far it has been mostly wonderful. We have several vegetarians with the group and they are doing fine. Some of the meat falls into the “mystery meat” category…not really my favorite! But baby bok choy sautéed in garlic and butter…lots of amazing chicken dishes, and stir-fries, and fish of all types. The food is so fresh and delicious. It must be serious watermelon season here, because we see it everywhere on the streets and that has been dessert at every meal so far, too.

These first couple of days are just rest, settle in, figure out how everything works, like the internet, what time is it REALLY, the meals, the food and water.

Several of us went walking in the afternoon, getting the layoff the land and some Chinese currency. I had brought along cash and had some of my money rejected as “too old” (some of the older twenty dollar bills….they only like it new and crispy. Luckily, the ATM machines will give us money from Visa or debit cards.

The weather is so humid, and up near 100 degrees. They say it has cooled down, but even the breezes blowing blows hot. We are right next to a High School with a great out door swimming pool, which we are going to be able to make arrangements to swim in.

We were looking for foot massages, and didn’t find it them, but did find a grocery store to buy water. Can’t drink the tap water, except boiled in tea or coffee.

But when at dinner I asked staff where a good place was to get a massage, the hotel manager said that whoever wanted a massage should meet in the lobby at 7:30 and we’d go get one. Four of us women took her up on that, and we ended up being driven by van to a very nice salon. There were all put in a room with four lounger type chairs and each got a 70 minute foot soak and massage, as well as work on our shoulders legs, arms and back. They all happened while we were watching Chinese TV. How much did this service cost? 55 Yuan, which is $8 American. Best deal in town. We all about melted into our seats, the mounds of tension draining away. We will have to do more of this. We still haven’t found the “famous blind people massage center”. Hotel staff swear that blind people give the best massages. We’ll have to see if we can’t give that a try, too.

Finally, falling off into bed at 10:00pm local time, God only knows what time my body thinks it is. But we are here!

China: Day 1: July 5, 2010

So how long DOES it take to get to China? Well, first you need to drive from San Diego to Los Angeles: about 2 hours, checking in and then going through security and getting ready to board nearly 3 hours, flying to Taipei Taiwan 13 hours, layover there 2 hours, landing in Hong Kong two hours, going through customs and getting to our hotel 2 hours=22 hours a verrrry long travel day.

As our group gathered in Los Angeles, we started to get ready for the long flight. Some of us laid down on the floor just because we could and would later REALLY wish we could stretch out!

Even though all the folks on our trip were given an aisle seat on the plane, I was asked by a very nice young woman who was traveling with her mother and grandmother, both with limited English, if I could switch seats with her so that she could help assist them. Although this meant giving up easy access to the bathroom, of course I said I would. They were going to Saigon to see family. A little awkward getting up and down, but in the morning the mom and grandma sent me over treats and thanked me profusely. The mom also offered if I was ever in Irvine, AA and wanted my nails done, to come to her shop;-)

Not a great night’s sleep, but the ear plugs and eye mask helped. We got some pretty darn good airplane food. I guess they do still serve food on international flights. Thank goodness! The plane was 747…huge! Yippi! We really are going to China!

Here is Kyle and I just after arriving in Taiwan.

China here I come!

Day –1, July 4, 2010

So, a strange way to spend the 4th of July: doing the final preparations for a 30+ day out of the country to China. In case you missed what the heck I am doing, here it the plan:

The company that is bringing us to China is InterLangua , a group based of the San Francisco Bay area. The program is a 3 week Chin Summer school/summer camp program called “The American Scene”. There will be twenty of us from the US (mostly from the San Diego area, but also from some other places). We will be teaching elementary ages students (grades 2nd-7th grade). We’ll be in Shenzhen City in the very south of China, one hour by ferry from Hong Kong).

The focus of the program is giving the children, as well as Chinese English teachers an exposure to American teaching methods, especially using creativity and the arts. Each day the kids will have sessions in reading/stories, visual arts, music, games, and performance. We’ll teach for three weeks, Monday-Friday, with each Friday late afternoon culminating in a special performance for the parents. The school that will host and house us and our teaching teams is one of the most elite and innovative schools in China.

We will be staying in a small Chinese hotel in Shekou, very close to Shenzhen.

Weekends and then for a chunk of time at the end of the trip, we will get a little taste of traveling and seeing more touristy sites. Th s will include Guilin and a river cruise on the Li River. Then for the last several days, I am choosing to stay with a group for several days in Hong Kong, just for fun.

I will plan to blog here as often as is practical. The technical aspects of being in contact out of China are a bit more complicated due to some of the controversy over internet censorship. We’ll see if I can do it directly, or if I will need to email updates to my husband and have him post them. (It looks like that will need to happen.) We will also not be able to access FACEBOOK, but I may be able to do something of the same thing there….have my husband do some posting.

Plan on checking back to this link address periodically to find out what I have been up to. The address is http://pattistory.blogspot.com/

So the suitcases are ready to be packed, I have prepared for every contingency that I can think of....

Getting the last pieces in place and then leaving from LAX, Los Angles Airport at 1:50am July 5th. Look out China, here I come!