kimginchina's Xanga

Goodbye, Xanga

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 05:09:00 GMT

So after four years of blogging on Xanga, I'm fed up. After China blocked Xanga, I thought I'd be ok because I was able to use a proxy server. The proxy server works and lets me access my blog, but uploading pictures and especially videos is pain-stakingly slow (even trying to post this has taken me forever!). And now, the proxy server is moody and I have to restart my computer every time I want to have it on. So, the frustration has now outweighed the fondness I have for my Xanga blog which I've used for more than four years - 1,506 days, Xanga tells me. I'm moving on and (hopefully) moving up and using Blogger. Blogger is still blocked in China, but I can log in and post to it without a problem and I can post to Blogger via email which is a nice feature, especially when I'm traveling and can't use a proxy server.

Another better feature about Blogger is that anyone can comment on my blog! I love to know who's reading my posts and to get feedback on what I write. Feel free to leave me a comment. Plus, it'll help me know that I haven't lost all of my blog followers by switching.

Here's my new blog address:

http://kimginchina.blogspot.com

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:50:19 GMT

So here's how I celebrated my 26th birthday in China . . . (long post but a lot happened!)

"Happy Birthday to you . . ."

To start off my birthday, Amy and Brad took me to a newly opened massage place Friday afternoon. We all had had an incredibly long, taxing week and a massage sounded like a gift from heaven, not to mention a fun way to celebrate a birthday. The greeter (for lack of a better word) recommended the 2 hour foot wash/massage/body massage. We agreed and were treated to the most amazing massage ever. I had no idea there were that many way to rub someone's foot but it felt so good. The package also included a paraffin wax foot treatment where they painted hot wax all over our feet, wrapped them up and then after the wax hardened it's taken off and your feet are so soft. After foot treatment was full body massage. Some of the ways we were pulled and stretched and jiggled (yeah, there's just no other word for it) would have been rather awkward in any other context, but our masseurs/masseuse (weird words) were quite professional and had a good sense of humor and were obviously enjoying having three foreigners to work on. For the final part of our massage we got walked on! You lay flat and your masseur holds on to these handles on the ceiling and proceeds to walk and slide up and down you back. I was a little unsure how I liked it at first, but decided it felt good. In addition to having a great massage, I've haven't laughed that much in a long time. Brad's so tall that the girl who was giving him a massage kept laughing that she couldn't get him in the right positions. Funny things kept coming up with us trying to understand the Chinese. Such a great time. And because it was afternoon, we got a 20% discount. 2 1/2 hours of massage therapy for only 70 yuan which is less than $10! We think it's going to have to be a monthly or every other week event.

(when the massage was over, we had a little fun trying out the ceiling handle bars . . . here's Brad "walking" on me)

" . . . happy Birthday to you . . . "

Friday night Mary Beth came out from Yidu and joined us for supper at Pizza Hut. Last year I had a big birthday dinner at the then newly-opened Pizza Hut so I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to continue the tradition. We had fun eating and talking together and then came back to our house for Black Magic cupcakes (with cream cheese frosting . . . yum!) for dessert. Mary Beth spent the night and it was fun to be able to just chat with her way into the night.

" . . . happy birssday, Miss Kim . . . "

My students were so sweet for my birthday. The birthday wishes and started as early as Tuesday in my classes. On Tuesday two of my boys gave a present. I opened it to find one glove inside (a brown striped glove with a stuffed bunny head on the back). When I asked where the other glove was they said it was coming with another boy in the Friday class. On Friday, Steve presented me with the match. They just did it to be silly which makes me happy. One of my students crocheted me a beautiful scarf. My Wednesday 4:00 class made a big card which they all signed and wrote notes to me on and left outside my door Saturday morning. Their notes were so sweet and cute . . . I have to share one. This girl had struggled with her speech the week before and I had had to talk to her after class and then have her give her speech again the next week. Here's the note she wrote me:

Dear Kim:
Happy Birthday! Also Happy everyday! I love your sweet smile, your special teaching and your kindness. There is an very important sentence I must tell you. That is, I love you and thank you so much for encouraging me and not leaving me fall behind! I will always remember you and love your classes. ~Kelly

Sometimes the students are overly complimentary but a note like that from a student really is encouraging to me and helps me to know that I'm making an impact on these kids.

One of my funny students from last year sent me a text message at 12:01 Friday night/Saturday morning so that he could be the very first person to tell me happy birthday on my birthday. I got messages all day on Saturday from students telling me happy birthday. Two girls who came over Saturday morning to study gave me a tea set gift (yes, another one . . . they mean well but this is my fourth or fifth tea cup set) and an amazing card. They used the word "happy" over and over to make the Chinese characters for Happy Birthday and wrote "happy birthday" in English, Chinese, Korean, French, and Japanese for me.

. . . happy birthday to you."

The night of my birthday, my friends put together a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater. We were all given a character and clues throughout the night and had to try to figure out who was the murder by the time dinner and dessert were over. It was so incredibly much fun. The setting was 1935 England and I was Lady Dianna Whittington whose husband was just murdered in their own house. Our story had a dutchess, my mother-in-law the countess dowager, a famous actress, a world renown-author, a vicar, a tennis star, and Venetian detective and an unexpected guest in it. We even tried (as much as possible) to dress our part and get the correct props. In the end Amy was the murderer but Brad turned out to be a German spy who was guilty for a previous murder. Thelma (a.k.a. Katie) was an actress in love with my husband and Jian was just out for my husbands money! Scandalous!

Here are a few pictures but if you want to see more you can go to the Facebook link at the bottom.

The dinner guests at Whittington Hall

How well do we pull of the 1920s-30s flapper look? . . . in China no less! (um no, Katie didn't really take up smoking . . . it's a marker)

Dahling . . . did you hear?? . . . .

Collin, Thelma, and Daphne

Me, a murderer!? Impossible!

For a present I got a crossword puzzle book (to go with the theme) and then I got personalized crosswords with funny clues made by Brad, Amy, Beth, and Katie. Everybody went in and gave me a membership at the newly renovated gym in town which I had been wanting to join. I also got a handmade wooden Chinese comb, earrings, a "cake" made by Kristy (out of cloth and personalized for me), and some great coffee. After we washed all the dishes at midnight we watched the movie "Clue" (yeah, just like the board game . . . I didn't even know there was a movie) to complete the Murder Mystery night.

A big, big thanks to my amazing Yichang friends for throwing me such a great party! I couldn't believe how much work and time and effort went into my party and my gifts. You are all wonderful!

More Photos

And, of course, I must mention the wonderful birthday box I got from my family. Mom, dad, Kara and John sent me fun food and new clothes, a great hat, and other fun little things from home. I can't say enough how much I love and appreciate my family and am thankful for how much they care about me.

Although "Happy Everyday" (as they like to say here) might be overly optimistic, "Happy Every Birthday" is definitely true in China . . . at least when you have the friends and family and students that I have!

See, I told you so . . .

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 07:21:07 GMT

A couple weeks ago, I emailed one of my former Two Plus Two students who is now living in Australia. If you haven't heard me rant about the Two Plus Two Program before, here's a recap. The 2+2 students are supposed to study here and then go abroad to study for two years. Sounds great. The problem - they're students whose college entrance exams scores probably weren't high enough for them to get into an four-year university here. The second problem - they come from wealthy families. The overall feeling is that these students are spoiled and lazy and that the school has no recourse to make them go to class or do anything because their parents are, in a sense, just buying their "education." Now, I must say, there are some really good students that I've had who have been in the 2+2 program. Some of the students are motivated, hard-working, and genuinely seem to appreciate the chance that they have to go abroad. But as a whole, when I have to teach the 2+2ers, it's like pulling teeth to get them to speak or practice English at all! They know they're going to be living in England or Australia in less than two years. They know that their English level is not at all where it should be, yet they still do nothing or just never go to any of their classes! It drives me crazy sometimes. Anyways, going back to my student's email . . . I wrote and just said hi and asked how he was doing. Here's his reply:

Dear Kim,
I’m so supervised to receive this mail from our beautiful teacher—miss Kim. Em, I didn’t go with my classmates to England because my parents want me to stay in abroad as long as possible. Now I don’t think its good idea to go to Australia alone. In Australia, I have to cooking by myself, washing by myself, that’s mean everything by myself, terrible isn’t it. And the worst thing is you must use English everywhere.

I think the new student in your class is pretty good. So I don’t have many advices. Just one thing, study hard especially oral English.

Hope things are going better.


                  Yours lovely,
                  Leslie

Ok, overlooking the humor of "supervised" instead of "surprised" and the "yours lovely" at the end or that this student is obviously just figuring out what it means to actually be an adult, let's focus on the sentence "The worst thing is you must use English everywhere." What in the world did you expect!!?? Did you think everyone in Australia would speak Chinese?? Did you think that all your teachers were just being dumb when they said that you should study harder because you're actually going to have to use this?? Did you think that Miss Kim just liked to hear herself talk when she said that you should take advantage of the fact that you have foreign teachers to talk to and practice with?? Wait, you probably didn't hear me say that because you weren't in class. I laugh and just shake my head at this email. The WORST THING is that you must use English everywhere . . . good grief. Plus, you're talking to someone who lives in a foreign country and has to try to speak a foreign language every day. And, I also manage to do my own washing, cooking, and cleaning. I'm not personally offended and I'm not really trying to laugh at this student or minimize how hard it is to live in a foreign country by youself: I liked him and hope he does well in Austrlia. It's just the irony of it all that I find funny especially hearing it in a student's own words.

Oh, I am older now, having had my 26th birthday yesterday. I would like to say a huge HUGE thank-you to my wonderful Yichang friends for going all out and throwing me a great party and giving me amazing presents. I will defintiely be posting pictures and writing about how I got to celebrate my birthday. Also, my students were amazingly sweet and thoughtful and funny about my birthday. As soon I consolidate pictures and get some time to sit down and wait for the computer to download stuff, I'll post about it.

Emotional TP

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 07:34:55 GMT

Things like this in China make me laugh. "Happiness" toilet paper. I never really thought about toilet paper making me happy, but when I saw these rolls of "Happiness" I realized that I'm less happy without toilet paper or when toilet paper is in short supply (thinking back on my trip to Tibet). So I suppose you could conclude that toilet paper indirectly makes you happy since a lack of it makes you less happy. And Chinese bathrooms which inevitably are without toilet paper are definitely less happy to use than bathrooms in America. "Happiness" toilet paper is actually a good brand, in case you're wondering. So, happy everyday and every trip to the bathroom.

Double Happiness

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 06:12:34 GMT

Since we had our big Halloween party on Saturday night so that more people could come, we decided to have a small Halloween dinner last night with just a few friends--me and Katie, Amy, Beth, Brad, and Dawson and Sandra, Shorel and Schafer. Schafer got to wear his frog costume again and come trick-or-treat at our houses . . . so cute! As with other holidays, we made amazing, creative themed food. Pumpkin soup in black caldrons by Beth. Orange muffins by Dawson. Caramel apple slices by Katie. Tombstone sandwiches and pumpkin shaped cupcakes by Amy, Vampire Repellent (garlic dip) that I made (thanks Kara for that mix you gave me a long time ago!). Brad made "monster toes" out of mini hotdogs, ketchup, and tortilla strips (we were all rather grossed out by the monster toes by the end of the night . . . they really did look like toes!) and the Kleinerts brought hot chai tea and pumpkin bread.

We are all creative! We are all funny!

"This Is Halloween . . . Everybody Make a Scene"

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:45:11 GMT

Photos from the 2nd Annual Greatest Halloween Party This Side of the Yangtze. I didn't think last year's party or last year's costumes could be topped, but I think we bested even ourselves. If I was in the States, I probably wouldn't do anything at all for Halloween, but here it's a blast to dress up for our students and friends.

Avian Evolution - When I was in the States, I thought I'd be smart and plan ahead (learning from my friends Amy and Beth) and I tried to shop for a Halloween costume that I could bring over with me. Well, at the end of August there was only a smattering of pre-Halloween decorations and costumes just beggining to surface on store shelves and I found nothing. As a sheer last ditch effort, I stuck a plastic monkey-face mask in my suitcase thinking I could use that if nothing else. Well, once again, China forces you to be creative. When we were in Wuhan at the beginning of the month, I picked up a feathery, glittery eye mask at Metro. Amy then let me know that she had a plastic bird's beak she'd brought with her from home. Ok, I'll be a bird. Then, I remembered when Sara left Yichang to go to Beijing she had given me a bright-colored feather boa. I remember thinking when she gave it to me, "What in the world will I ever use this for?" and threw it into a cupboard. So glad I didn't get rid of it! Thanks to our friend Salina, I found a few peacock feathers in an underground market and some crazy yellow stripped knee socks. I drafted Amy's creativity and together we took apart a broom, gathered some grass and leaves, stuck it all together with hot glue and made a nest complete with plastic Easter eggs. And, to complete the effect, Beth and I went down to the little hair salon and had them curl our hair into tight ringlet curls (took all afternoon but only cost 15 yuan). So that's how I ended up being Gawdy Gaugler the toucan/peacock/phoenix.

Before the party Katie and I made a stop at the little store outside out apartments to buy drinks and cups. The workers there see us all the time and we chat with them almost everyday. All of them flipped out when they saw us in our costumes. So funny!

Everyone else was amazingly creative as well . . . Amy the panda, Beth the mermaid, Katie as Hello Kitty (since people call her that anyways), Brad as Captain Jack Sparrow, Me the bird, and Dawson as Quail Man (remember the cartoon "Doug"?)

Brad was amazing as Jack Sparrow. Not only did he look the part but he could act and talk just like him. It was especially great because almost all of the students here have seen the Pirates of the Carribean movies.

We rented a room in the hotel on campus and invited a group of friends and students, probably about 50 altogether. We tried to reinforce to students that they had to wear a costume to come. We provided some masks and a few supplies, but the students really came through with some amazing costumes. Remember, there's no super Wal-mart, no Party Supply Co., no Halloween items for sale in stores, and most of the students have never celebrated Halloween or dressed up in their lives.

We had a costume fashion show and gave out prizes for costumes.

Chen Tao won for most detailed costume. She borrowed a Tang Dynasty dress and head piece and looked amazing in it.

Felix won for Scariest Costume

Super Bush and the three Bushes won for Funniest Costumes (they all had pictures of George Bush taped on their heads . . . we had no idea where they got this idea). And Steve next to them on the left won for Most Creative. He came as a carton of milk!

As with most things we do in China, the party took a ton of effort and creativity but was so much fun.

Spooky Everyday!! (in China "happy everyday" is an overused well-wishing that everyone thinks we say in English . . . we like our Halloween version better)

Can I interest you in a . . . ?

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:04:59 GMT

Last week in my sophomore speech classes, the chapter was on persuasive speaking. Somehow, last year when I first taught this chapter, I came up with a really great lesson idea (doesn't always happen). After discussing the points about persuasive speaking in the book, I divided the class up into groups of three or four students and then gave them a mystery item. The mystery items were all odd things I had in my house that the students had pretty much never seen before or had no idea what it was for (mostly kitchen gadgets that they would never have need of or know what to do with). A mashed potato masher, a garlic press, a cookie dough scoop (works like an ice cream scoop), a semicircular pizza slicer, a jar opener, a three-hole punch, a bread dough hook (attachment for a mixer), an apple slicer, a curling iron. The kids had about 15 minutes to figure out some uses for their "thing" and then come up with a way to persuade me and their classmates that we all needed one. Let me just say that this is the most hysterical lesson ever.

The mashed potato masher wins out as the funniest item and the item that gets the most reactions from the students. I bought the masher at Ikea in Beijing. It's metal and it really is the biggest masher I've ever seen. It became everything from a kung fu weapon, to a magic microphone (the speaker can discreetly use the handle as a mirror to check his/her makeup), to a backscratcher. One group turned it into an all-in-one noodle maker--mix the dough, knead the dough, roll the dough out with the handle, slice the noodles with it. One group said you could use it to curl your hair by weaving you hair through it. It was a candle holder at one point and a way to hang clothes.

The pizza slicer became a fan, a hair ornament, a protractor, a pet grooming tool, a toy for kids, and a weapon to deter robbers by cutting their throats if they got to close.

The three hole punch baffled most of the groups for a while (I usually gave it to the boys), but usually they finally figured out its real use and you could see the light bulbs turn on above their heads. Then they would proceed to punch holes in their textbooks, notebooks and any other random pieces of paper they found. Several groups came up with alternate uses. It became a way to exercise your hands and fingers like a stress relief squeeze toy. One group made it a mouse trap--the bait was put inside the side of the hole punch and then the mouse would get pinned down by his tail. The hole punch was also a dumbbell (if you bought one, they'd give you one free for the other hand).

The funniest thing that the jar opener ended up as was a dental tool to extract teeth! Wow, makes me cringe just imagining it.

One group did a skit in which two girls were using the curling iron to curl each other's hair (most of them had seen curling irons before) but then a robber suddenly broke into their room (enter third group member) and they proceeded to burn him to death with the curling iron and marketed it as a handy weapon/beauty tool for girls.

The cookie scoop at one point was a tool to help you check your vision by covering one eye with it and then the other eye.

I tried to video tape their presentations, but on my digital camera the quality of the sound isn't quite good enough. The kids did amazing jobs. This is one lesson where I really feel like a real teacher, the inspirational kind of teacher that you always see in movies. The kids are speaking English, listening to English, looking up new words, practicing speech techniques. I'm having fun, and they're having a blast. The whole lesson is hysterically funny but still under control. I couldn't wait for the next class to see what they'd come up with. I wish lessons always turned out like this.

"Find a job you like and you'll never have to work a day in your life." --Confucius

But Wait! . . . There's (no) more!

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 11:54:08 GMT

Today I was home and heard a loud Chinese knock (Slight digression . . . Did you know that with nearly 100% accuracy I can know if it's a Chinese person or a Western person knocking on the door? Yes, well, I can. Chinese people all knock the same. Sharp, demanding, staccato knock and half a second later, before you have any chance to get to the door or get it open, they knock again. Pretty much every person, every time.) I answered the door to find a man standing in the stairwell dressed in a suit and tie with an armload of flyers and a some sort of phone in a box. A door-to-door salesman! My first time to have one at my house in China that I know of. Katie and I frequently find advertisements and flyers left outside our door but I've never actually been home to answer the door when a salesman called. I wish I could have video taped the salesman's reaction when I opened the door. It was something sort of like this . . . . . . accompanied by an audible "ugghhh??" He recovered quickly and here's roughly how the conversation went.

Kim: Hi. Can I help you?
Man: Oh!!?? You speak Chinese??
Kim: Well, a little.
Man: Wow, so great. (Hands me a flyer) Here you go. Bye bye!
Kim: (said to his back as he's disappearing down the stairs). Ok, I can't really read much of this . . .

Not much of a sales attempt. Made me laugh though. Guess his marketing classes failed to include a chapter on "Sales Techniques When Encountering Foreigners."

La Mian!!

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 12:30:00 GMT

(I was doing so well with posting consistently, but alas, a lack of internet service and slow connections have set me back. Anyways, hoping to get back on track, here's something I've wanted to post about for a while.)

One my favorite Chinese meals is "La Mian" which literally translates to "pulled noodles." La Mian comes from the city of Lan Zhou in the west of China and the shops are all run by minority Chinese Muslims. La Mian shops are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a weeks, 365 days a year. There's usually a counter right outside the little shop where the La Mian Ren (Pulled Noodle People . . . sorry, I want to use Chinese because it sounds so odd for me to say it in English, bear with me) make a huge blob of dough everyday. When you order a bowl of noodles, the La Mian Ren whacks off a portion of dough, rolls into a section about a foot long, and then in about 30 seconds goes from one roll to two to four to more than you can count and . . . BAM (Emeril style) tosses it into the pot. If you don't feel like spaghetti-style noodles, you can get them to make strips of dough and then pinch off little pieces as they toss them into the boiling pot of broth making bite-sized noodles. Or the La Mian Ren will form a big chunk of dough into a round cylinder and use a knife and slice of piece so that the noodles are flat and about 6 inches long. You can get your noodles served with beef (no pork since it's Muslim) and cilantro in soup. Or dry with soup on the side. Or fried up with veggies and beef together. Or with an fried egg thrown in. Or cold with tomatoes. So good and so filling!

Katie and Mindy and I are quite partial to one particular La Mian shop even though there are literally dozens of shops sprinkled throughout Yichang (at least three within walking distance of my apartment). The original shop we started going to the first year still gets our vote as the best La Mian in Yichang. And the workers there are all our friends and have been for almost four years. Katie and I love to joke with them that they should all pack up and take their shop to America because we have nothing like La Mian there and that we could all go into business together and make lots of money since it'd be the only shop of its kind. Our La Mian friends are amazed when we tell them they could easily sell a big plate of noodles with beef and veggies and soup on the side for 5 dollars which translates to about 40 yuan. La Mian here cost 4 - 6 yuan a bowl.

I know my cinematography skills are lacking, but I only had one chance to catch them making the noodles. At least a video does it more justice than just pictures. First you see one La Mian Ren pulling the noodles and then tossing them in the pot. Then you see the lady flinging the bite-sized bits of dough into the pot. Oh and that's Katie's voice in the background telling them, "Wow, you guys are so great to make these noodles!"

Here Comes the Groom . . . and other Chinese wedding traditions.

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 02:12:52 GMT

Last Wednesday, our good friend Salina had her wedding banquet. Because she is a close friend, we were invited to go to her house in the morning and participate in all of the festivities. Here are some pictures and a look into some Chinese wedding traditions.

Me, Katie, Mindy and Christine with Salina and her mom at her mom's house.

The groom and an entourage of black cars arrive amid the defeaning noise of myriad firecrackers at the bride's house to "steal her away."

The groom has to pass out "hong bao" (red envelopes filled with "lucky money") to everyone in order to be allowed into the bride's house.

The door to the room where the bride is waiting is blocked.

Inside the bride and her girlfriends force the groom to sing songs, answer silly questions, and pass red envelopes under the door to "prove his love."

Lucky money for everyone!

The groom's finally allowed in but then he has to find the bride's red wedding shoes before they can leave.

The groom can finally take his bride away . . . amid much confetti and silly string and more firecrackers.

Then it was off to the newlyweds new apartment for pictures with both sets of parents. We took a few minutes for a fun pose outside.

Next comes the wedding banquet. There's a short ceremony and speeches from the parents (Jian Bao and Salina even sang a duet together) and then the bride and groom go around and toast all the guests at each table.

Wedding food tends to be a bit strange for us foreigners. There are always some good dishes, but it never fails that strange dishes also make appearances at weddings. Here we have . . . pork ankles. Yes, ankles.

The happy couple. Halfway through the banquet the bride will change from a white western-style wedding dress into a red, traditional Chinese "qi pao."