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!
