Hey everyone, I've been super super busy lately, working a whopping 27 hours a week!!! Haha, to most this sounds like nothing, however you have to take into consideration three things; 1. I work at a "Design Institute" as a college level English teacher, so I have to prepare exams, grade homework, essays, etc go to meetings (lol like a real job), 2. I have to travel for work IN BEIJING, some of my commutes lasting up to an hour one-way, and 3. I have to prepare for three different work places and then extra tutoring on the side. Needless to say, I'm a busy busy girl.
I actually did get a moment to relax when I found out that there was a holiday this weekend from May 1-2 so I have been off work and doing work for the past three days. Yesterday I went to Chaoyang Park, the largest park in Beijing for a day of relaxing and eating out with the friends. Anywho, I will keep you more posted when I have something that is actually interesting to report.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Tantalizing...A blog is the only setting where I can rightfully use this word...
Word of the Day: Tantalize : to tease or make frustrated, as by tormenting with the sight of something greatly desired but inaccessible.
I don't know why this word popped into my head just now, but I realized that I never use this word even though it is sooo much fun to say. One could say that my blog tantalizes the readers by showing my adventures in China.... ahaha
One Tantalizing tale after the next...
Anywho, this tale is anything but tantalizing, I'm going to talk about my New Years (Chinese and Western). The Western New Years came first. It was HORRIBLE. I was separated from my friends, the club I had paid good money to go to was boring, cold and played bad music, my buzz wore off, I left with out seeing anyone on the countdown to the new year, I paid for an overpriced taxi ride back, I was really cold, and the icing on the cake....I left my keys inside my apartment so I was stuck sitting in a bar hoping that my roommate would come back soon while an annoying barfly chattered on about some kind of nonsensical subject. The start of the night was OK, one might even say 'just so-so' as the Chinese English speakers are taught to say. It just went downhill from there. :(
Chinese New Years--Now thats what I call a new years "Nian Kuai Le!!!" Even though most of my friends weren't here for the new years I still had a great time. I relaxed during the day and in the evening went down to a Hutong called Ho Hai (hope I spelled that right). This was fun because the entire city was in a festive mood. Fireworks and firecrackers could be heard from every direction. Ho Hai is also the home of somewhat a karaoke (KTV) and bar central. There is a lake in the middle of it all and on one side is the Ancient Bell Tower and the other is the Ancient Drum Tower. It was kind of cool to be celebrating a Chinese holiday in china in the shadow of these ancient buildings. I turned in early, in bed by 1pm but while out I met some new people and gained a new group of friends which was the nicest thing that had happened to me all winter.
February- Mother and Father Visit.
So my mom and dad decided to visit me and go to a few other places while they were over here. They started in the Philippines, visiting the Reinosos, went to Hong Kong to visit my sister Nicole, then came to Beijing. Of course, seeing as I'm known as their "Best Daughter", I know they had the best time while visiting me. I was finishing up work so I had their full and undivided attention, They stayed in Beijing for about 4 days and then we visited Xi'an and Shanghai
BJ- They went to the great wall and the Ming Tombs while I was at work, but I went to the Tian'an'men and the Forbidden City with them. The last day was some kind of cultural tour where we saw the bird's nest (Olympic Stadium), went to a Tea House and toured a Hutong (a traditional Chinese neighborhood) where someone actually cooked us lunch! It was the best Chinese of the whole tour, in my opinion. *Pictures below in order: Temple of Heaven (Tian'tan), Llama Temple (Yonghegong), part of Tian'an'men?, my mother and I at the Bird's Nest (Olympic stadium)
Xi'an - This was a good t"rip, we saw the terracotta warriors and some other random things including a cool night market in the center of town. We were in Xi'an for all of two days, whereupon my dad had decided it was the most dusty city that he had ever seen in his entire life! LOL! You should have heard him after we finished the trip, in the elevator (excited look on his face) "You just wait, when we get to the room, we are gonna have a conference to talk about what we just saw today" ahah I had no idea what my father was just about dying to express to us and as soon as we were settled in the room...."I wanna tell ya that Xi'an is SO DANG DUSTY! I mean WOW, it's gotta be the most dusty place I have Ever seen!" For those of you that know my father, picture him saying this with the most incredulous look on his face LOL! When I came back to Beijing, I was talking about him saying that to a lady who works for one of my companies (of course I imitated my father) and she could not stop giggling, she definitely got a kick out of it! (Below are terracotta warriors, and Xi'an drum tower lit up at night with the wall on the far right)
Personally I loved Xi'an I didn't think it was that dusty and dirty, I think that Beijing is a bit worse. It was a charming little city, little being 9 million people. It had an ancient outer wall that encased downtown and central Xi'an and also is the city closest to the site where the Terracotta Warriors were discovered. That was really cool, I might even venture to say cooler than the Great Wall.
Shanghai - Shanghai was really amazing, it seemed like an upper-class New York style Beijing. What amazed me when I got there was the simple fact that many more people in Shanghai have a sufficient grasp of the English language. You could try to ask someone something on the street but more often than not, they will answer you in English. Kinda nice, kinda strange. It was interesting to see the different styles in architecture because the history of Shanghai is much shorter than that of Beijing and Xi'an. Xi'an was the site of the first capital of China, and because of beliefs in Feng Shui, (Fung Shway? for literal pronunciation), the capital was moved to Beijing because it was believed to have more Feng Shui than Xi'an. Shanghai is only about 200+ years old, whereas BJ and Xi'an are many centuries older. I would say that Shanghai is a cool place to visit, but is wayyy too western and english oriented for my liking. I would much rather a more unique Chinese culture experience like in cities similar to Beijing. (Pictures below: Downtown Shanghai, the other two are pictures of a rich person's parent's summer relaxation palace/home)
[What also comes to mind is the fact that Nicole traveled to Sth America before I did but she stayed in the boring European Buenos Aires. I HATED Buenos Aires but loved the authentic South American feel of Santiago albeit a very different and strange hispanic feel. The same rings true for our current situation. She is loving the really western Hong Kong while I love the very Chinese Beijing. -She can be given the benefit of the doubt though because I have yet to visit HK]
Anywho, this is about all that I need to update you on except the minor happenings here in Beijing like: I just got a new job at a Design Institute as an English teacher (the entire school program teaches classes in English), my boyfriend should be due to visit, and OH YEA! I'm not coming anytime soon! See you around X-mas! Zaijian! Ending on a bad Chinglish sign, this was a sign in the Bathroom of a Ramada Inn in Shanghai, a How-To-Operate-The-Faucet Guide LOL WHA?
I don't know why this word popped into my head just now, but I realized that I never use this word even though it is sooo much fun to say. One could say that my blog tantalizes the readers by showing my adventures in China.... ahaha
One Tantalizing tale after the next...
Anywho, this tale is anything but tantalizing, I'm going to talk about my New Years (Chinese and Western). The Western New Years came first. It was HORRIBLE. I was separated from my friends, the club I had paid good money to go to was boring, cold and played bad music, my buzz wore off, I left with out seeing anyone on the countdown to the new year, I paid for an overpriced taxi ride back, I was really cold, and the icing on the cake....I left my keys inside my apartment so I was stuck sitting in a bar hoping that my roommate would come back soon while an annoying barfly chattered on about some kind of nonsensical subject. The start of the night was OK, one might even say 'just so-so' as the Chinese English speakers are taught to say. It just went downhill from there. :(
Chinese New Years--Now thats what I call a new years "Nian Kuai Le!!!" Even though most of my friends weren't here for the new years I still had a great time. I relaxed during the day and in the evening went down to a Hutong called Ho Hai (hope I spelled that right). This was fun because the entire city was in a festive mood. Fireworks and firecrackers could be heard from every direction. Ho Hai is also the home of somewhat a karaoke (KTV) and bar central. There is a lake in the middle of it all and on one side is the Ancient Bell Tower and the other is the Ancient Drum Tower. It was kind of cool to be celebrating a Chinese holiday in china in the shadow of these ancient buildings. I turned in early, in bed by 1pm but while out I met some new people and gained a new group of friends which was the nicest thing that had happened to me all winter.
February- Mother and Father Visit.
So my mom and dad decided to visit me and go to a few other places while they were over here. They started in the Philippines, visiting the Reinosos, went to Hong Kong to visit my sister Nicole, then came to Beijing. Of course, seeing as I'm known as their "Best Daughter", I know they had the best time while visiting me. I was finishing up work so I had their full and undivided attention, They stayed in Beijing for about 4 days and then we visited Xi'an and Shanghai
BJ- They went to the great wall and the Ming Tombs while I was at work, but I went to the Tian'an'men and the Forbidden City with them. The last day was some kind of cultural tour where we saw the bird's nest (Olympic Stadium), went to a Tea House and toured a Hutong (a traditional Chinese neighborhood) where someone actually cooked us lunch! It was the best Chinese of the whole tour, in my opinion. *Pictures below in order: Temple of Heaven (Tian'tan), Llama Temple (Yonghegong), part of Tian'an'men?, my mother and I at the Bird's Nest (Olympic stadium)
Xi'an - This was a good t"rip, we saw the terracotta warriors and some other random things including a cool night market in the center of town. We were in Xi'an for all of two days, whereupon my dad had decided it was the most dusty city that he had ever seen in his entire life! LOL! You should have heard him after we finished the trip, in the elevator (excited look on his face) "You just wait, when we get to the room, we are gonna have a conference to talk about what we just saw today" ahah I had no idea what my father was just about dying to express to us and as soon as we were settled in the room...."I wanna tell ya that Xi'an is SO DANG DUSTY! I mean WOW, it's gotta be the most dusty place I have Ever seen!" For those of you that know my father, picture him saying this with the most incredulous look on his face LOL! When I came back to Beijing, I was talking about him saying that to a lady who works for one of my companies (of course I imitated my father) and she could not stop giggling, she definitely got a kick out of it! (Below are terracotta warriors, and Xi'an drum tower lit up at night with the wall on the far right)
Personally I loved Xi'an I didn't think it was that dusty and dirty, I think that Beijing is a bit worse. It was a charming little city, little being 9 million people. It had an ancient outer wall that encased downtown and central Xi'an and also is the city closest to the site where the Terracotta Warriors were discovered. That was really cool, I might even venture to say cooler than the Great Wall.
Shanghai - Shanghai was really amazing, it seemed like an upper-class New York style Beijing. What amazed me when I got there was the simple fact that many more people in Shanghai have a sufficient grasp of the English language. You could try to ask someone something on the street but more often than not, they will answer you in English. Kinda nice, kinda strange. It was interesting to see the different styles in architecture because the history of Shanghai is much shorter than that of Beijing and Xi'an. Xi'an was the site of the first capital of China, and because of beliefs in Feng Shui, (Fung Shway? for literal pronunciation), the capital was moved to Beijing because it was believed to have more Feng Shui than Xi'an. Shanghai is only about 200+ years old, whereas BJ and Xi'an are many centuries older. I would say that Shanghai is a cool place to visit, but is wayyy too western and english oriented for my liking. I would much rather a more unique Chinese culture experience like in cities similar to Beijing. (Pictures below: Downtown Shanghai, the other two are pictures of a rich person's parent's summer relaxation palace/home)
[What also comes to mind is the fact that Nicole traveled to Sth America before I did but she stayed in the boring European Buenos Aires. I HATED Buenos Aires but loved the authentic South American feel of Santiago albeit a very different and strange hispanic feel. The same rings true for our current situation. She is loving the really western Hong Kong while I love the very Chinese Beijing. -She can be given the benefit of the doubt though because I have yet to visit HK]
Anywho, this is about all that I need to update you on except the minor happenings here in Beijing like: I just got a new job at a Design Institute as an English teacher (the entire school program teaches classes in English), my boyfriend should be due to visit, and OH YEA! I'm not coming anytime soon! See you around X-mas! Zaijian! Ending on a bad Chinglish sign, this was a sign in the Bathroom of a Ramada Inn in Shanghai, a How-To-Operate-The-Faucet Guide LOL WHA?
Monday, February 28, 2011
Long Time No See =0
Hey Everybody..... LONG TIME NO SEE! right?
Anywhoo, I was talking to my roommate Erin and she was talking about her friend's impressive blog and her lack of motivation to create one of her own when I remembered.... OH YEA! I have a blog too! I haven't been extremely motivated and the reason why can be summarized in about 3 main points (lol plus I really want to make a list...)
Anywhoo, I was talking to my roommate Erin and she was talking about her friend's impressive blog and her lack of motivation to create one of her own when I remembered.... OH YEA! I have a blog too! I haven't been extremely motivated and the reason why can be summarized in about 3 main points (lol plus I really want to make a list...)
- My computer broke so I had to wait for the new one to come and this was a big hassle where I was really bored.. Extremely bored.
- I was ending the regular school season and I was beginning to transfer into my winter schedule (it was intense... talk about going from working 10 hours a week to working about 50). The first session ended. I had a few days off and then I started the second session. Each lasted about 11/12 days.
- My mother and father came into Beijing and we also traveled to Xi'an and Shanghai. So I've only been back in the BJ for about a half a week.
So for these reasons plus a hint of laziness I have not blogged in a while.. I apologize and I know that I've lost valuable time and important thoughts/insights.
Here's an attempt at a detailed Recap (...I always recap)
CHRISTMAS
Obviously we know the date of Christmas (December 25th if you could not remember). This was the most depressing Christmas that I have ever had in my life and I vow to never miss a Christmas ever again in my life, no matter where I was. Initially I thought I could handle it seeing as I only had only minor heartache from missing my second Thanksgiving earlier that year. It was particularly horrible because I didn't have my computer and the fact that I was surrounded by Chinese and English folk. I didn't expect too much as far as the Chinese perception of Xmas but was surprised to find out that it is celebrated but obviously not for its religious tradition. What you might like to call a 'fashion holiday'. Everyone likes to decorate and play Christmas music but of course it cannot be the same as home.
What blew my mind and appalled me at the same time was the British folk. THEY SERVE TURKEY ON XMAS!!! WHAT? That's called Thanksgiving. It dawned on me suddenly when she mentioned that she was excited to have Christmas dinner at our friend Brendan's because he had an oven and they were cooking two turkeys.I then had an intense discussion with my roommate where I swore I had never seen a turkey served on X-mas and that if I ever saw one served at my Christmas table I would take a picture of it and admit defeat. She swore it was abnormal for anyone to have anything other than turkey for Christmas. She was blowing my mind. I can only picture a Christmas ham... YUM! I did later have to admit defeat because I polled several friends and family to see if it was OK to have turkey on Christmas and they deemed it acceptable.
Anyway, I proceeded to have a strange Christmas dinner that consisted of a very European Christmas meal (that I thank God will never be served anywhere near my future Christmas meals) of Turkey, Roasted potatoes? wha?, roasted vegetables, stuffing, and cranberry sauce..... Might as well have been my missed Thanksgiving meal..... very inappropriate. I felt like I was in bland/backwards times at the European Christmas. However I will have to admit that everything was pretty good minus the potatoes which should have most definitely been mashed not roasted....(I love home!)
So you see how much I've just talked about the irritation this subject caused me in December...It is February and I still think about how silly it sounds to eat turkey on Christmas. So, from hereon out, I vow to never be away for Christmas and to NEVER eat turkey on Christmas again. :)
WINTER CAMPS
All in all. I taught about six different winter camp classes. The sessions were from January 18th-29th and from February 7th-18th. Four classes for the first winter camp and two for the second. I worked many more hours during the first one so I was essentially exhausted. My mother and father came around during the second session so the second one was almost equally exhausting (no offense mom and dad :)) The first session of winter camp was definitely the most interesting because most of the children/kids were not from Beijing. This means that I was essentially one of the first foreigners they had ever seen in their lives or one of the first they knew on a more personal basis (not seeing one in a park or something).
The most amusing classes were my Beginner and Intermediate Interchange Students who were in classes that focused on LSRW (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing). I obviously was the coordinator for the speaking session. The first class was smaller and a bit harder to conduct due to the actual English capabilities of the students. The second class was a lot more interesting because of the higher English level and interest in the subject. Below is a picture of the second class
The BEST class of the session was the last class that was focused on simply oral communication with a focus on student output rather than teacher output. Therefore this means that I had to talk less. The kids in this class were about 16-17. They were hilarious because they had the highest English skills of all of my classes and they were very interested in my life. The best question I heard was 'Gabi, please tell us about "American Culture"', yea I can describe that in a few words. :/ There was one girl in particulary named Emily who wanted to know everything about my life and was dying, in every single class, to take pictures of me. I told her to wait and she sighed in despair. She also begged me to do a song and dance for the last class which she claimed was a "New Oriental" (the company that held the class) Tradition. The last thing she did almost killed me. She wanted to see the pictures that I had on my computer and she watched as the slides changed never ceasing to be enraptured by the subject of "my life". Finally I showed them a picture of my boyfriend. I swear she nearly lost it, she made sure that she had a picture of the picture of my boyfriend. Hahaha I almost fell off my chair in laughter!
The second winter camp was a bit less interesting. As I mentioned earlier they were all from Beijing, so a foreign teacher didn't phase them. The first class was large and some of the students were a bit stubborn and unwilling to participate in the class, but in the end it ended up working out and the class was enjoyable. The second class was the oral communication class so they again did most of the talking. Usually I posed interesting questions and they were discussed in depth during the length of the class. One such subject was "Superpowers". We brainstormed for different super powers, explained what they were, etc. Then I had them each think of a superpower they would like to have and they had to analyze it by the following prompts 1. was it a power they would use for good or for evil thus making them a superhero or a super-villain. 2.What are the problems that would arise from having this power 3. What exactly would you do with the power ..... etc Very fun and interesting class. The last class was spent discussing music tastes/genres, current artists and an instructional slideshow on beat-boxing. (The kids in the picture to the right are from the inter camp above in order William, Cici, Emily)
Tell-tale signs of a winter camp [p.s. these all happened to me]:
CHRISTMAS
Obviously we know the date of Christmas (December 25th if you could not remember). This was the most depressing Christmas that I have ever had in my life and I vow to never miss a Christmas ever again in my life, no matter where I was. Initially I thought I could handle it seeing as I only had only minor heartache from missing my second Thanksgiving earlier that year. It was particularly horrible because I didn't have my computer and the fact that I was surrounded by Chinese and English folk. I didn't expect too much as far as the Chinese perception of Xmas but was surprised to find out that it is celebrated but obviously not for its religious tradition. What you might like to call a 'fashion holiday'. Everyone likes to decorate and play Christmas music but of course it cannot be the same as home.
What blew my mind and appalled me at the same time was the British folk. THEY SERVE TURKEY ON XMAS!!! WHAT? That's called Thanksgiving. It dawned on me suddenly when she mentioned that she was excited to have Christmas dinner at our friend Brendan's because he had an oven and they were cooking two turkeys.I then had an intense discussion with my roommate where I swore I had never seen a turkey served on X-mas and that if I ever saw one served at my Christmas table I would take a picture of it and admit defeat. She swore it was abnormal for anyone to have anything other than turkey for Christmas. She was blowing my mind. I can only picture a Christmas ham... YUM! I did later have to admit defeat because I polled several friends and family to see if it was OK to have turkey on Christmas and they deemed it acceptable.
 |
| The Girls: Erin and Cady at the Dinner table |
 |
| Turkey, Stuffing, Roasted Potatoes and Veggies |
WINTER CAMPS
All in all. I taught about six different winter camp classes. The sessions were from January 18th-29th and from February 7th-18th. Four classes for the first winter camp and two for the second. I worked many more hours during the first one so I was essentially exhausted. My mother and father came around during the second session so the second one was almost equally exhausting (no offense mom and dad :)) The first session of winter camp was definitely the most interesting because most of the children/kids were not from Beijing. This means that I was essentially one of the first foreigners they had ever seen in their lives or one of the first they knew on a more personal basis (not seeing one in a park or something).
The most amusing classes were my Beginner and Intermediate Interchange Students who were in classes that focused on LSRW (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing). I obviously was the coordinator for the speaking session. The first class was smaller and a bit harder to conduct due to the actual English capabilities of the students. The second class was a lot more interesting because of the higher English level and interest in the subject. Below is a picture of the second class
 |
| The intermediate |
The BEST class of the session was the last class that was focused on simply oral communication with a focus on student output rather than teacher output. Therefore this means that I had to talk less. The kids in this class were about 16-17. They were hilarious because they had the highest English skills of all of my classes and they were very interested in my life. The best question I heard was 'Gabi, please tell us about "American Culture"', yea I can describe that in a few words. :/ There was one girl in particulary named Emily who wanted to know everything about my life and was dying, in every single class, to take pictures of me. I told her to wait and she sighed in despair. She also begged me to do a song and dance for the last class which she claimed was a "New Oriental" (the company that held the class) Tradition. The last thing she did almost killed me. She wanted to see the pictures that I had on my computer and she watched as the slides changed never ceasing to be enraptured by the subject of "my life". Finally I showed them a picture of my boyfriend. I swear she nearly lost it, she made sure that she had a picture of the picture of my boyfriend. Hahaha I almost fell off my chair in laughter!
 |
| Rain shaking my hand |
 |
| Winter camp above: Leo |
Tell-tale signs of a winter camp [p.s. these all happened to me]:
- The kids are amazed and stare directly at the foreigner in the room, in my case, myself.
- The disregard of the idea of good English names and choosing to use words like Voice, Rain, Sunshine...etc.
- Sign autographs in the course books with a 'nice message' along with it.
- Pictures taken of the foreigner when they think the foreigner is not looking (happened to me in class), Pictures are taken in a frenzy and continuously for about 10 minutes during the last class, pictures are taken while signing autographs, pictures taken of the pictures of foreigners.
- Asked to give a parting song and dance.
- Asked to put every single piece of information about yourself (the foreigner) on the board so everyone can have your; phone number, full name, e-mail address, QQ/Facebook, msn messenger name, Skype username
- A whole-class-escort to the vehicle by which you came to the winter camp for the day.
- Strange and unique sensation and feeling of stardom or of being some sort of celebrity (I was sure made to feel as such) lol
OK sidenote: <make sure the next post includes New Years, Chinese New Years, Parents' Visit> ....toodles, zaijian!
Friday, January 14, 2011
I have recovered!
Sooo the evident lapse in writing was due to a major computer failure. All is well now. I just received my new computer (soooo tiny) from China Post and finally have all of my files transferred. So now I am free to take up as much time as I feel like with random bloggings. Look forward to them folks!
January 20th
January 6th was my last official day of work with my Primary School Shi You (prounounced like Shur Yo). It was sad to say goodbye to all my little kiddies, but at the same time I could easily say good riddance! Anywho, Since then I've been putzing around trying to keep myself busy while I had essentially no work for a week. Good thing I made sure that I had a winter camp to work at for January and February or I would be flat broke! My winter camp started on the 18th and generally I have older middle school students and college aged students.
This is a very amusing job because of the amount of time I spend in one day with the same class. My first class was really awkward. There were four students (all of who did not want to speak) and it was like pulling teeth to get any information out of them. Finally I just ended up relating all of the information to myself.
My second class was amazing. They were intermediate students and the class was very large. We had a good time making dating adds for Lady Gaga and talking about Rude Behavior in China. The most amusing thing is the fact that students constantly are trying to sneak pictures of me. Evidently I'm the first foreign teacher they've had because these students come from outside of Beijing. My favorite quote was the following:
"Teacher you look like Ashley Tisdale...." Me: Is that a good thing? "Yes you have a very beautiful face" lol what?
ahaha, anyway on that note I'm going to bid you adieu, zaijian!
January 20th
January 6th was my last official day of work with my Primary School Shi You (prounounced like Shur Yo). It was sad to say goodbye to all my little kiddies, but at the same time I could easily say good riddance! Anywho, Since then I've been putzing around trying to keep myself busy while I had essentially no work for a week. Good thing I made sure that I had a winter camp to work at for January and February or I would be flat broke! My winter camp started on the 18th and generally I have older middle school students and college aged students.
This is a very amusing job because of the amount of time I spend in one day with the same class. My first class was really awkward. There were four students (all of who did not want to speak) and it was like pulling teeth to get any information out of them. Finally I just ended up relating all of the information to myself.
My second class was amazing. They were intermediate students and the class was very large. We had a good time making dating adds for Lady Gaga and talking about Rude Behavior in China. The most amusing thing is the fact that students constantly are trying to sneak pictures of me. Evidently I'm the first foreign teacher they've had because these students come from outside of Beijing. My favorite quote was the following:
"Teacher you look like Ashley Tisdale...." Me: Is that a good thing? "Yes you have a very beautiful face" lol what?
ahaha, anyway on that note I'm going to bid you adieu, zaijian!
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