Now renovated into artists lofts and space, the rooms were spacious and filled with posh and shabby party-goers alike (I fell into the latter group). There was plenty of eye candy to lessen the pain of the expensive drink, but thanks to my friend Kyle, I met quite a few cool people. I sat talking with one of the DJs for a while after she had finished her set, and so I was lucky to have much to drink ‘mian fei’ (免费) – for free.

Still for the biggest time since I’ve been in China, I really missed my friends and family back home during the holidays. I love all of my surrogate families in Minnesota, and especially during the holidays found myself thinking of the typical feasts and festivities they were enjoying. Heralding in the new year just isn’t the same without my all my pals from home.

New year’s eve at the 1934 Party was strange but exciting, and only ending sourly when I stupidly left my wallet in the taxi on the way home. (Note to self: never put your wallet, or anything of value, in the pocket of your hoodie!) In the future though, I think I’ll try to make it home for the holidays, at least until I can afford to bring ya’ll over here!

This was my first Christmas away from home and outside of my home country.  Here I expected the holiday to go by without much fanfare, but to my surprise, Christmas decorations seemed to be hung up in every little store front from my town to Shanghai, and the shops were filled with the same familiar Christmas tunes!

Christmas decorations gone wild in Shanghai

I had Christmas and the day after off, but on Christmas eve my middle school students put on a little celebration.  They had a Christmas tree, and sang and performed for two hours, while I and a few other English teachers judged.  At the end of the performances everyone was handed a little piece of paper upon which they wrote their Christmas wishes, after which they hung all these wishes on the tree.  Yes, it was pretty cute.

[pictures forthcoming]

On Christmas Day, Siobhan, Stuart, Kyle (a friend of mine from Shanghai), and I went into Suzhou to have a five course Christmas lunch at an English bookstore and restaurant that we frequently visit.

The dinner wasn’t quite the classic Christmas fare, but the main course was pretty good: turkey, apple chutney, mashed potatoes, and peas.  We three westerners gobbled everything up right quick, but Kyle (native of Chengdu, which is home of the panda sanctuary & located in Sichuan and it’s super spicy food) was not as impressed (the food was ‘not too bad’).

This Christmas did make me realize how much I appreciate seeing my family during the holidays.  It is usually the only time of year that I get to see them all, and I am thankful that we are all friends.  I know many people who can’t stand to be around their siblings, but lucked out in that regard, all of them are pretty great to hang out and spend time with.  Another thing I really miss about the holidays, the food.  I do love me some Chinese food, don’t get me wrong, but I also like bread and cheese and savory things, and the two loves seem to be mutually exclusive.

I hope everyone I know had a great holiday and a happy new year!  I miss you guys!  Only eight more months before I see you again!

On the 30th we went to the kindergarten Halloween party, and I finally got to meet all the little ones that Siobhan teaches.  Quite a few of Stuart’s primary school children were there too, so it was great to meet all the little devils I’ve heard so many stories about.

There are many days that I would like to swap my middle school & high school students to teach the littler ones; but each group of kids has their own unique set of challenges to be sure, and after a night of high pitched shrieking and waist level karate punches, leaving my ears and … well, other parts sore, I am fairly certain I made the right choice.

We started the night rather strangely, the three of us sitting down in the Halloween-decor saturated kinder-classroom and reviewing vocabulary with group after group of kids – showing them flashcard after flashcard and rewarding them with candy.

After that they had a little dance party …

during which I snuck up behind some kids and gave them a good scare.  While most of them shrieked and then laughed, one little girl just instantly broke into tears!  I felt pretty bad, but the parents were all just rolling with laughter.  Ahh, good impressions …

The night ended with all the dressed up teachers (the three of us foreigners and one of the natives) taking pictures with the students … and about fifty photos later we called it a night and headed back to our dorms.

Siobhan, Stu and I made the best of it though and got in some good exploring of Suzhou.  We took a long stroll around the city, following the main canal that borders the city center, and visiting many gardens along the way.  Its a bustling city with a long history and I’ve still got much to see there, and many museums to visit.

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Did you check those out?  You back?  Okay, here is something real pretty.

One of my favorite places was the Northern Buddhist Tower.  A little temple area located and preserved nicely within the city, it was a nice place to relax and take in a little beauty.

It was well maintained, and naturally, a bit of a tourist trap.  But, you could go all the way up the giant pagoda you see here, giving you a wonderful view of the city and surrounding landscape, err, more city.

Happy Buddha.

Climbing, a nice view of the temple grounds below and city behind.

Higher.

Watch out!

Higher still.

Made it to the top! I don’t know what this look is about.

Views of the endless cityscape.

“Nuclear pagoda.”

Twilight visions.  (… or, a polarized view through my sunglasses.)

After making our descent, we checked out the rest of the temple grounds.

Giant black frog.

Serious Mama Coy. Two feet long.

The celebration of China’s 60th birthday was an interesting time here at the school.  My junior classes had a little party and they asked me to host.  I thought this seemed like a rather un-chinese idea, but as it turned out I was co-hosting with the dean of the junior grades.  There we had China and America hand-in-hand and suddenly nothing seemed more an appropriate way to welcome the sixth decade of their nation.

They asked me and the other foreign teachers to prepare something about our national days, how we celebrate and such.  Huh.  Most people drink quite a bit and watch a fireworks display – but since telling a group of 11-15 year-olds this probably wouldn’t go over too well, I told them it was a time of firework displays and reunions with friends and family.  I wikipedia’d the rest, and recounted something about our independence from England and ‘inalienable rights’.

As the night progressed, my co-host for the night turned over to me and asked me if I’d like to sing a song.  I vaguely recollected from the two-minute-before-the-event-started-and-first-time-meeting-to-discuss-the-night’s-schedule that she wanted me to join them in a song – “Heal the World” by, of course, Michael Jackson.  Quickly recovering from my momentary shock from her seemingly odd request, I said “Sure, but I think I might need some help!”  Ahh good times.  The students finally got their wish to hear me sing (sort of, I turned off my mic), as the music started and I joined my students.

A short play recounting the story behind the Mid-Autumn Festival – a love story about a girl named Chang’e who drinks too much of an elixir of immortality and rises to the moon, where her lover Houyi can only see her once a year.  Sweet.

After the kids sang one more song (and I joined in on that one just for kicks), a few more kids lip-sanc (what’s the past of lip-sync?), and then the whole group tried to teach us three foreign teachers how to say Mid-Autumn Festival in Chinese, each giving it a try in turn.  Good times.

Then we judged a poster contest, picking two winners, one that represented National Day, and one that represented the Mid-Autumn Festival.

(Not one that we chose as a winner, but real cute!)

National Day Winner

Mid-Autumn Festival Winner

What did this mean?  I went to the class and found out it was canceled, all the student had gone home for the week and I had an extra afternoon off.

I am pretty sure I know which of the students was the vector – during a few lessons he looked like he had the flu, was continually sneezing and coughing, and not once did he cover his mouth in the process – bless his heart.  None of the kids here have the malnourished sickly look, so I think they’ll all pull through.

The other weekend Stu and I took a walk exploring the hills behind the school.  From the base of the hills there appeared to be some pretty cool looking old temples to explore at the top.

At the base of them there was actually a really well kept temple area, but since he had already explored that one the day earlier, and since it cost a whopping 20 RMB (okay only about $3, but you’d be surprised how cheap you get while staying here) – the equivalent of 3 meals – we opted instead to trek up the hills in search of something new.

The path up wasn’t too bad, the path we took brought us up an unpaved road in the middle of a bamboo forest.

It was gorgeous.  It was the first time I had really seen a bamboo forest. After monkeying around in the trees I understood why almost all of the structures we had seen so far were built using bamboo scaffolding.  It is super strong and grows quickly and densely (all those kung-fu movies where they are doing crazy acrobatics from one bamboo tree to the next seemed a little more plausible …).

Further along the path became steeper and was formed of carefully placed stone.  Everywhere I turned I saw and heard strange new insects, though thankfully I didn’t see any gigantic centipedes along the path.  Strange orange wasps, hundreds of dragonflies, and the most colorful varieties of butterflies I’ve never laid eyes on.

There we came across some cool carvings in the cliffside.  I recognized some of the characters, but a few of the carvings were done a style known as Seal Script (a popular style about 1800 years ago, though it had been used much earlier and much later just as another style, and is still seen today in the signature stamps used in art).

Continuing along the trek up we came across a small group of people building the very trail we were on.  We got a few strange looks, and I wasn’t bold enough to take pictures, but they seemed like a friendly lot.  They spoke a very different dialect, but we managed to figure out that if we continued up ahead we’d reach the temple.

Not nearly as large as the temple near the bottom of the hill, we finally reached an old temple that looked like it had received little attention over the years.

A lone man stood watch over the temple grounds, sweeping the steps and courtyard.  I wondered what this may have looked like in its glory.  It was still a pretty magical sight, and just outside the walls there were thousands of dragonflies.  In the distance we could see another temple, and along the way we could see the sprawl of many cities before us.

We arrived to see this one was gated off, looking more like a fancy new residence.  Gated off and out of reach.

We went down the hill a different route and appeared to be entering some sort of nature preserve.  We kept passing these signs, roughly translated to “protect the forest, prevent fire … everyone has green” … huh, I think I missed something there.

The only other thing that clued us in that this may be a tourist area was the relatively well kept path with steps and sometimes a hand rail.  What had started out as a scenic trail soon became rather crappy.  Literally.  Why on earth one needed to take a duke right in the middle of the steps is anyone’s guess, but I guess it is easier to squat with a nice solid footing.  At first I thought it might have been animal droppings, but the toilet paper thrown aside and cigarette butts quickly dispelled any question of its origins.

We exited from the less than picturesque path through a beautiful archway and found ourselves at a tea plantation.

An old mansion on the property.

Leaving the plantation, we walked through a cute little town filled with interesting houses and many canals characteristic of the area.

Some ducks hanging out on the dock.

There is plenty to explore in the area so it seems me and my fellow foreign teachers really lucked out.  On our way back home we came across a posh little golf range and spa.  It was tempting, but we were smelling a bit feral after our hike, so we caught a little taxi and made it back home.

I still can’t really believe I am a teacher.  Seriously.  Me?  It is strange because I am teaching a pretty wide range of students, ages 13-19 and of such varying skill levels even in the same grade that it is really hard.  The younger ones are actually pretty good, it is the oldest ones who are the most troublesome and don’t really have much interest.  Still, I know that the older ones are under a lot of pressure to pass exams, so it is hard to get too upset.

For my first lesson in each class I’ve had them get into groups and come up with any questions they can think of to ask me.  The most typical questions and answers are …

Q: “Do you like China?”

A: “I love China!  I am so excited to be here because I have studied China and Chinese culture for many years.”

… applause …

Q: “What is your favorite Chinese food?”

A: “Dumplings.”

Q: “What do you think of our school?”

A: “It is beautiful and all the students and teachers are very nice and friendly”

… applause …

Q: “Do you have a girlfriend / wife?”

A: “No. I am too busy for love.”

Q: “Do you like Michael Jackson?”

A: “Umm.  In America we thought MJ was a little strange.  He lived in a big house filled with child’s toys.  So we thought he was a bit odd.”

Q: “Do you speak Chinese?”

A: “我会说中问。我的专业是中问和电脑。” – - – “I speak Chinese, my major was Chinese and Computers.”

They all get really excited when I tell them I speak Chinese.  The younger ones break out into a deafening applause which just cracks me up.  They also get sad when class is over, and I must admit, I do as well since they are so excited and a joy to be around.

I have 18 different classes, totaling about 600 students.  Yeah, its nuts.  I teach ten days in a row with four days off.  Seven out of the ten days I start at 7:50am, so I am trying to get used to getting up at 6:30.  The last time I did this was in high school.  It is rough.  I just started day one of five days in a row of teaching at 7:50am.  So. Damn. Early.  I teach each class twice a week, so 36 total.  Thankfully I only have four different age groups, so that mean I just need to come up with eight lesson plans a week and they are only 45 minutes long so … well, it is harder than I thought.

Needless to say, after the long and tiring days, I’ve got a lot more respect for teachers.

Dressing conservatively for my new role.  Well, at least for the first week.

So the kids are a *bit* spoiled.  There were more Mercedes, BMW, VW, and other such fancy cars here on the the first day than I think I had ever seen anywhere.  On my first day, in my first class, I had one student from Korea, one from Japan, and one from New York.  Huh.  That was weird.  I guess his dad knows one of the principals at the school (they have three principals and a headmaster).  So the poor kid  just changed from an American school to a Chinese school, where he needs to get up at 6am, have classes from 7:50am – 9:30pm, and they do homework until midnight.  I told the other teachers I am going to make him my helper, and I think they are down with that.

At 9:30 on the first day of school, all the junior and senior students assembled on the soccer field to raise the flag and herald in the new school year.

It was interesting but also a bit odd for a westerner I think.  So many students and all of them seem so patriotic.  Perhaps just because patriotism is falling out of favor in the states, but they are all very happy when I tell them how excited I am to be in China.

The first few nights here consisted of many trips to the grocery store filling up on little necessities.  Stuart, Siobhan, and I looked rather like a bunch of freaks as the only white faces in a sea of Chinese people.  The people are mostly curious, but the stares do get a little tiring, though I am getting used to it and it is not too bad – a little “Ni Hao” usually puts a smile on their faces and they stop the blatant staring (no, not really – they just keep staring but with a wider grin on their faces).

The rooms dorms are pretty good, but and we have most everything promised to us.  No proper kitchen to speak of, but enough cooking gear and a little know-how will make it easy.

On my second night here, after cleaning all the surfaces of the furniture in my dorm, I made some new signs to cover the window to my dorm.

As I was putting up the sign, this not-so-little beast crawled into my room.

I smacked it with my sandal and freaked out a little.  The centipede (wú​gōng 蜈蚣)  looked like it was straight out of an Indiana Jones movie.  Shaking with disgust I walked into the hallway and saw my neighbor, the computer teacher named Xiao Shu.  After waving him into my room to see the monster that lay dying on the floor, he went back to his room, got an empty soda bottle, and scooped it up.  He explained that it was poisonous and that a student had been bitten by one earlier in the day.  The next day I went to our school liaison and promptly requested they put baseboards on our dorm doors.  I have no desire to wake up and have one hanging out beside me.

There are some beautiful hills behind the school, and what appears to be several temples on the top of them.  I can’t wait to climb up and see them, perhaps when our bikes have been fixed and the temperature drops a bit.

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