Tibetan ness

I feel like Tibetan food is sssooooo tasty haha I'm gonna miss it so much when I go to Shanghai. Maybe it's because in their hometowns they are used to cold weather, and somehow that results in using spices and flavor in their food lol
Don't get me wrong cause Sichuan food is good but sometimes I feel like it's lacking something. My favorite thing in Tibetan cuisine is....unfortunately i have no idea what they call the dish haha (different language) but they do have potato balls that taste awesome! and potato cakes!!

I really grew to like the Tibetan culture that I got to know at school. I will miss the weekend cultural dancing terribly. because I feel like that is something special. Of course they do it every weekend every year, but for people who love music (me) that is the life!! ;p
i also had a friend who comes to dance every week. I know everyone in her dorm but it seems like they don't like dancing. Oh well I usually dance with her. For some reason the world has put on a bad image to dancing. Not cultural but if I tell people I want to go to a club they are like... Why? and dance hip hop? The truth is because of music videos everyone thinks dancing is a sexual activity, but if we still enjoyed ball room dancing I would be at those clubs the most.
I love gong out to dance but dancing in a routine seems more fun. Anywho, I hope I find something else to enjoy culturally because the impression that I got from the Tibetan people make my heart warm. I will miss them soooo much. Thank You!!

Ethnic Groups of Tibet

(this is one of my three Tibet essays. i just find Tibet pretty interesting)

While taking this Tibetan culture class I have learned that they also include different ethnicities. Some well-known ethnic groups of Tibet are the Menba [门巴], Lhoba[洛巴]，and the Deng people [登人], but there are more. They are classified with Tibet because they share some of the same religious beliefs, culture, land and even the language is similar in some ways.

First I’ll start with the Menba [门巴]. They have related themselves to Tibetans through politics, economics and marriage. They had ruled over the Menyu area, as their name implies. The population is about 8,928 people. On the Tibetan Plateau they can be found mostly in Moinyu in Southern Tibet’s Autonomous region, though some do live in other places. They have their own language that belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family, but no written script, so they use the Tibetan language. Though their main source of food was agriculture, most of them are alcoholics. Clothing is based off of the Tibetan Chugba. They wear red wool robes or coats and black yak hair caps, and leather boots, but sometimes trousers can be worn. The men will wear skull caps with tassels or fringes. The women wear a warm jacket over a long sleeveless chemise. They often carry knives and wear gloves and of course earrings. Because it is cold in the winter, the roofs of the houses are made out of bamboo matting. As I said the Menba usually live off of agriculture but they do hunt for food or use game as barter. All animals can be hunted besides men and tigers. On a special day, one specific boy using only a jawbone with the teeth in it can hunt tigers. They believe this will give the power of guidance by the ancestral tigers to the boy. They enjoy making handcrafts, animal husbandry (breeding animals) and forestry (planting to make natural resources). They specifically make woodcarvings, weavings and carpets. Tibetan Buddhism of the Gulugpa sect has been their religion, but some still believe in primitive sorcery such as Animism (the belief that everything has a soul) and Bon; believing that the spirit of the Tiger protects them. For Buddhism they place water offerings and butter lamps around a Buddha statue. The main treatment of the dead is sending them on their way down a river, known as water burial. Still, they also bury them, leave them to the wild and burn them, known as ground, exposure burial and cremation..

Second are the Lhoba [洛巴]. The population is about 3000 people. They are also located in the south, in Lhoyu in Southeastern Tibet and no written form of their own language, in the Tibetan-Myanmese family. Actually, only a few can speak and/or write the Tibetan language. They did try to keep records of the past by notching wood or tying knots, and of course, just telling stories. They had strong belief in the ancestors and the Tiger but a lot have converted to Lamaism. They have celebrations for peace and prosperity, make a lot of bamboo crafts, and the women are excellent at weaving coats and skirts. Clothing within this ethnic group varies upon the level of sub-groups, but the men will wear long sleeveless black wool vests and helmet like hats made of bearskin sometimes with bamboo woven in. They carry arrows, swords and other tools used for hunting. Women wear blouses and short sheep’s wool skirts. They carry around lots of ornaments because the amount of ornaments worn symbolizes their wealth. Neither of them wears shoes. They can wear these things year round because they have warm subtropical weather. While agriculture is the main part of their diet, they are heavy smokers and drinkers. Because they didn’t have much salt in their diets and had poor lifestyles, a lot of them got endemic goiter diseases allowing most of them to be born deaf or mute. So they were kind of forced to marry outsiders. Before, they were really bullied by Tibetans, being considered wild people, and so some were cast out to live in the mountains or forests and marrying a Tibetan was forbidden. Women have no status and so they don’t get to inherit anything.

Finally I’ll discuss the Deng people [登人]. Also referred to as wild monkey people, they have about 1300 people. They live in Zanyu County in the Ningchi prefecture mainly in the southeast part of Tibet’s Autonomous region. They live in 2 story houses and are very short. They have no written part of their language, which comes from the Tibetan Burmese family. They believe in ghosts, which is just the Animism religion again. Men regularly wrap their hair and wear silver earrings with a knife in their belt. Women normally wear necklaces and pearl earrings. They also don’t wear shoes. They lived mostly off of agriculture. Women were big smoker but now they prefer to sing or dance to pass time.

Being of a lower class, all of these ethnic groups had less satisfying lifestyles, but nowadays as with the rest of the world the people have schools at which children and adults can be taught. The houses are more modern as well as the farming systems. They have been able to truly start over by having new land to farm in and even though this is all after 1951, I’m glad that they could get the help that have gotten so far. I hope that some of these cultures can stay with us for a while longer and experience the new day and age with us.

Being completely right

Today I can only say I told you so! (not really to anybody but still)

My teacher told my class that we are her best class yet. We remember the vocab, we finish our homework before class (mostly correct), we are able to do short presentations on the spot!

Her last group never remembered the vocab always needed help with the homework and can only finish on chapter when we finished 4!
(Here she is referring to our new book that gives about 55-60 new words per chapter.)

I think she is a great teacher by far, but now I'm starting to think that my study skills have completely improved! I cut out everything non-Chinese until the weekend. but that turned into only Chinese everyday! consequently my Chinese has been great.

of course i can't bear to lose my Japanese so i'm going to start using my mixi and buy a Chinese persons Japanese text book.

Children

Our school has cultural dances every Friday and Saturday night. I usually join in and then lots of students talk to me only saying Hello in English. It's funny because this past Saturday I went as usual but there were many more students that joined in. So of course I was more popular than normal. Then I thought about back home. My friends and I love to meet foreigners and ask the same questions that they learned from day one. Then we ask for they're number and maybe we'll actually call them out.

This time though I was bombarded by 2 very sweet kids. (Sorry I don't have their pics but I have a video lol) The girl was in 3rd grade I think and the boy was just a tot. This is when I noticed that children will never ask you those easy one liner questions. They prepare a whole speech or story! Their voices are higher and they talk faster making you feel like you better go back and study some more. haha But in reality, they are using the normal speech and speed that you should be used to.

Talking to them was a lot of fun. The little boy practically ran up to me and said
姐姐你是哪国人？ (Big sister, which country are you from?)
With no fear of approaching a black person, like a lot of tots here have. So of course this made my day. He even called me big sister instead of Auntie (I'm still young) or whisper to his mom "a foreigner!" (which is considered slightly rude here).
[Most educated people know to say 小姐 or 美女 which are Ms.]


And so I write all of this to boast of course lol
I'm proud of myself for getting to the point that I can understand children and when they are treating you as an equal!

Day 4/5 Transition

We took a train to Xi'an西安. As soon as we got there we went straight to some museums...

I don't even remember off the top of my head,but it was a day of museums in a city I don't know much about with no tour guides...
You can imagine walking around looking at things and not knowing what they are for or the story behind them. It was almost meaningless. Luckily I can read a bit of Chinese but when they are explaining ancient things, there's no way to know what the new words are.
My favorite chubby statue lol

Oh well. I guess I can go back someday, because the city wall that goes all around the city was pretty awesome!
It even has a moat!!
We have the same eyes.
We are being completely crazy in front of the stone garden. (More pics on photobucket)

Day 3

We went to the summer palace. It was actually much bigger than I expected. I mean it's a palace so of course it's big but they built a man made lake with a small island and then has it's own .. mountain if you will.

We were free to roam so I made the best of it. (Again they only gave us 2 hours...shame) I watched a few performances and got lost enjoying the weather and the land and the new sights to be seen.

Again people took pictures with me but no one has ever ran to me to do it. The girl was so cute!

**Speaking of pictures. I saw one of the princess and her concubines...it just wasn't what I expected...**

Later we went to a place called the Silk Market and I bargained quite politely this time to get gifts lol Earrings
The shop keepers were a little more mild but they still have no problem trying to hold you until you buy.

This day I realized that you can tell people and their personalities intertwine with there money. A few people in the Shanghai program are good at spending like there's no tomorrow. With that the attitudes were quite uppity. certain foods are "unedible inedible or whatever" and you should "just take a taxi anyway. You may only spend 60-80 yuan."

Personally coming to China meant immersing in the culture to learn the language. That means try to enjoy the food...only thing is the food turned out to depend on where you go...what a concept. Then for transportation I learned the bus route. Only 1/2 yuan depending on the bus. I even got a monthly card so I can ride 40 times for 20yuan. If we had a subway, I'd use that. Only 5 yuan. Just in case the buses are down for the night or too packed.

I just want to say that just because you have money (in their case it's unlikely all their own) doesn't mean you have to throw it away. Also doesn't mean you need to scrimp and pinch it all. But the attitude you show to others is important if you want to climb the ladder of success.


[P.S. I thought to post the "earring" pic because sometimes we need to admire black girls with nothing stereotypically extra. But i wore a hat. I'll probably write about this later.]

Day 2 The GreaT Wall

The scenery is as beautiful as the books, the feeling of being in a part of history is amazing, the Great Wall itself is a great mountainous pain in my body and mind as I look up to see only more uneven steps and old people who've gotten a head start. (I'm just kiddin' those old people will always be honored in my book.)

I made a video in case death came upon me but I recommend people to work out and then go climb the wall. Some how I chose the more difficult one on the right rather than the on that was mostly a flat path on the left. But I accomplished a dream and shouted 'Go Jamaica!' at the top so I'm happy.(Yes thinking of you Papa ;p )

I also saw a young black girl going up and I was so happy she was there! Unfortunately she was cute and wore heels...don't know if she made it.

* Later we stopped by Olympic park but I was carsick somehow and I didn't get a good picture. Sorry.

**Then we went to an acrobatic show and it was good but I had to laugh at the boys who wore 6 pack costumes...

Day 1 北京

We went to Tian'an men Square 天安门广场 but it just an entrance to the forbidden city 故宫. That place was amazing, because as the Chinese name shows, it's not a city it's a palace 宫. Unfortunately we only had 2 hours in this great place and the map we received made it seem like a small palace...as if.

I did a good job of not being lost and decided that I can still be a ninja. You just have to know exactly where to go to get anything done. Of course being a foreigner a lot of people took pictures with me but this is the best time；

Guy: Can I take a picture with you?
Me: Sure thing! (Glad he took that as a yes, I forgot he asked in Chinese)
(while taking the picture)
His Mom?: Why do you keep taking pictures with black girls! What's wrong with those cute white girls?!
Him: ...
Me: ...

I wanted to hug that guy and say thanks for not being racist. It's amazing what people will say when they think you don't know their language.

*Later we went to a place called the pearl market and it turned out to be a big store open for bargaining. The thing is some of those people speak the rudest English and some grab and hold you so you'll buy their merchandise...I was not the one. I don't even bargain much but being grabbed made me buy something extremely cheap. ( I mean I took the price down about 80 percent. But I really needed a scarf there. It was windy.)

Overall I enjoyed the day.

Also go to my photobucket for all of the pics
user name: jamasianblog


This place doesn't let me upload the way I want.

Just so you know...

The first thing I saw.

It was clean.
I am a poor college student and thus took the train from Chengdu 成都 to Beijing 北京. It was almost forever!!! lol nah it was like a plane ride. Unfortunately I was in an area with 5 other chinese ppl. Which could have been a good thing but the only speaking ppl were speaking some random dialect so didn't talk to them the whole time. One lady was very nice though. She spoke to me a little and gave me some fruit because I had no food!! (SOMEbody forgot to mention that train rides don't include food.) It was okay though I had some snack money...seriously. The only thing I'd buy is snack because everything else is ridiculous.

I did get to walk down to my program buddies area though so I wasn't completely bored...I also did my homework. (I know I'm a geek.)


When we got to our hotel we met other members of the USAC program that are studying in Shanghai 上海. They were pretty cool people. we all went out for dinner and had Peking duck of course. I'm gonna say duck is miiighty tasty.

It had a nice ins

Self realizations

I am sorry about the time missed. I was in Beijing北京 and Xi'an西安. Of course I will tell you all about them but first my blurb for today.

I just got back so I decided to go and visit the friends that I talk to just about 6 days a week lol and dive right into my studies.

I went to talk to my friends and they were like "Oh I missed you so much!!" and I even introduced them to one of my friends (who finally wants to start immersing) and one guy was like, "I really like her. She seems sincere." This isn't the only time I feel like true feelings have come out. In America I learned that China was soooo conservative they don't really show emotions, etc. But after being here I realized that they show only the truest emotions I have ever known. Maybe they feel too quickly even. They aren't raunchy with affection like some cultures I know, and I feel truly honored to be around them. haha Maybe the reason they don't say 'I love you (我爱你)' is because we all know it. Just by the way we express our feelings about one another and how we aren't embarrassed to let someone know 'Hey I have been thinking about you.'
(I like how I've unconsciously put myself in their category. Maybe it means I have changed a bit.)


I also did one of my Tibetan Culture essays today. The teacher has told us to make our own topics. 3 pages double spaced due by the end of the semester.
In China textbooks are a rare thing so I could only go off of my notes from this fast paced class and the internet (Heeey!!) haha
I have made the decision to use this method for all of my essays now. I have been doing it wrong this whole time. My essay seems better when I use my own notes and my own personal research. I don't want to use another textbook again! Those authors explain everything in such an uninteresting way...

All right I'll stop here and start the vacation post marathon lol

Love ya!

Touch the Black Girl!!

You know I don't really mind the staring and coming up to me to say "Hello", but some of these people pet me....I'm like "Am I a new animal?" It's not that bad but some people look like they might be thieves so I make sure to not have anything in pocket and only carry a small bag. I have heard that Tibetans will aggressively ask foreigners for money and...Hey, I ain't rich.

Let's Go To The Movies

I went out with my program friends to see a movie in the theaters. lol Oh yes experiencing all of China in these terms....

So we get to the theater and (as you all should know I already watch Chinese shows and movies in America so I have favorite actors) I see the poster for a movie that one of my favs is in and I tell everyone that we should watch that or one other. (The other looked good but i didn't know those actors) We ended up picking mine because the other one didn't play at night....
I did the translating for the group this time. (It would have been me or the Korean girl YeJin) I guess it's because the others would only respond to my English translations that she tells me "but there are no English subs" and I was soooo happy when I told her "that's ok. we don't want any!" lol i'm lame.

[[Anywho, student discounts here are bomb!! We got half price. That]] [[movie was 60 yuan($ 8.76) and we only paid 30 ($4.38)!!!]]

The actual movie was actually pretty good. This is the first movie that my actor has done. So I expected corny. I was also glad because only YeJin and I are in advanced class, but the lines for the movie weren't to difficult at all...(or was that just us understanding??) haha

We've decided to go to the movies often because even the friends I have in America learn English through watching our movies.

P.S. For some reason when my Chinese friends speak English to me I subconsciously translate it to Japanese. With my American friends I translate it to Chinese....

Still in China

I was thinking all day that this trip is not going as I'd planned and I'm not learning fast enough, and I feel so alone out here.

Then I walked back to campus and the friends I made here welcomed me back with open arms! lol I felt like "Wow stupid! You have friends right here trying to help you along!" They talk to me all the time mixing their small english skills and explaining their meaning in simple Chinese, I realized that there isn't much more that I want. ...well...maybe money....but besides that lol

There is a saying that I learned in class 在家靠父母，出门靠朋友。which means at home depend on your parents, outside depend on your friends. And I think my friends are awesome. I don't really want to go to Shanghai next semester.

Monestary Viewing

Sorry about not updating. It's been a little hectic. Anyway, we went to see 乐山Leshan. The place with the big Buddha carved into a mountain. It was a complete let down. I've read up on all of the places that we'd be visiting this year and I have seen cool things about Leshan online so i was pretty excited to see this 233foot tall, 90 yrs to carve Buddha. But when we got there we just took the boat ride to pass it by. I felt like I had just watched the ending of a movie I'd always wanted to see. So I'm warning everyone, if you ever want to see the Buddha climb it. it's much more exciting. then we went to 峨眉山 Emei mountain. and i went to my first hot spring!! lol they are very nice but only one was really "hot" most were like a heated pool. The funny thing is that people kept asking aloud what country I was from. and one group was joking around saying "I can't tell if that's a foreigner or not" ....yea it was strange. The next day we climbed the mountain to see 3 different temples. I felt like the stairs were endless!!! Of course the next day my legs were sore. The mountain was completely beautiful and the temples were very nice for being hundreds of years old. I went on adventure to see wild monkeys too. I have to find a way to upload them. but videos take a long time so I'll have to wait for a patient day lol Thanks for reading!!

Not The Rich Foreigner

I am definitely not the richest foreigner.

I have been asking about where I can buy a good back pack or purse back pack and some jeans. Why do all of them take me to the expensive shopping mall? The bags started at 500RMB and the jeans at about 430RMB. Which is still a good 60 something in USD!!

So I just went shopping with my classmates so that I don't need to waste the chinese students' time. But shopping for pants is not that easy here. I wear a size 28-30. So finding ones that fit is not a big problem. Its finding ones that look good!!

For some odd reason they just love ironed on wrinkles or huge flowers or extremly shiny mess all over their pants. I was like....I'm black. I know you can see me. lol

Anywho shopping in china is interesting. they like for you to try on clothes one by one. i have no idea why.... it is soooo much faster to just try on a few and find the one you like and get out.
I found a good pair for 69yuan [$10] and even a shirt to match for 19yuan [$3].....yep good old National Day sales. lol

The Taste I Used To Know

I am really starting to miss the way bread is not sweet and you can put butter on it. The order in which food is served in the restaurant and the way things have a taste at all! and cake is moist, and cookies can be soft!

This is definitely not the Chinese food I was expecting...but Haagen Dazs did not disappoint! lol

Please be teased.

Haagen Dazs
chocolate greatness
yes even this is edible

Yellow Dragon Town

I liked this little place. It's a showing of part of older china. Plus the river is 2 different colors. They have made it a little more commercial with all the souvenirs, but what can you expect? It 2008 even I wouldn't live in the old style unless you paid me.

Anywho. When I first got there I wanted a picture of the gate and then me in the middle (of course) and when I finished this girl (12?) came and said Hi and shook my hand and rubbed my arm and, I think I should have taken a picture with her lol

My director invited some Chinese students from our university to try to ease the isolation (will post later) and so I made a new friend and we all went around looking at the old things and ate lunch. Then I found myself alone.

So I walked around and bought a few small things and then I saw a part of the river where you can cross on stones (they have animal characters on them like ，鼠，龙，猪） any who this is what it looks like:


and it has high traffic time. I convinced myself I wanted to go then, but before I could try crossing the guy in that picture wanted to take a picture with me. So I took one with him and his friends. and I got back in line. then some girl wanted to take a picture with me so I did and got back in line and by that time it was very high traffic lol

So I crossed without falling and as soon soon as I got to the other side person after person wanted to take pictures with me (one even said that her school is near mine so we should hang out sometime) haha

These people make me feel extra special sometimes lol

Sichuan Opera

I know that people often make fun of operas but i think that the people who sing, for the most part, have beautiful voices.

So my friend YeJin found a place that wasn't too expensive and we watched a Sichuan opera 川剧. They had a lot of different skits though so it wasn't opera the whole time. They had fire blowing, face changing, puppeteering, shadow puppets and Erhu.

I really like the music with the Erhu 二胡. It's pretty much classical but the guy who performed last night did an upbeat song later. I think those people are very talented because it only has 2 strings and yet so many different sounds can come from it.

I know shadow puppets sound very....dull or lame, but if you would have seen the animals he was making... It was brilliant.

The regular puppets are so detailed. They move their eyes and twirl a cloth or pick things up and while you're watching you know it took a lot of practice. I commend those people.

Eggplants???

For this class we made green beans and fish-flavored eggplants... I've never eaten eggplant before and i have avoided it until now because i don't want to waste a whole plate of food. (It was a very small amount though. I'm still here.)

Anywho it tasted ok the green beans were better. I got full points on it, but the eggplant was too dark. I think in Sichuan cuisine food needs to be very colorful, but I don't mind because i have discovered in my few years of cooking that the more color it has the more flavorful.

Exams

I got a B (84) on my first exam. It's time to study some more. I've been having too much fun being the beautiful foreigner. I better start bein the student lol

I Am The Foreigner

Yesterday I went out to return some things to a store (it was easier than I thought) and I was walking with a white guy (friend from my program) He was saying he liked walking with me and Vanessa (true red-head in my program) because people don't stare at him as much. I thought that was funny but walking to the store people obviously were paying him no mind. All eyes on me. lol

In the store one lady even followed me around a bit (this happens occasionally) and finally she started to talk to me asking "Where are you from?" "Where do you study?" "Who braided your hair?" (thank you Nayshay everyone has complemented) She remimded me of a teacher I had in the U.S. Very nice lady, slightly aggresive. lol

I was glad that I understood her and she and her husband were impressed (no applause needed) haha and then when she was finished my friend says, "I love it! I get nothing." And it's true. People made obvious stares at me and small conversation.

It's fun to be the foreigner. It's even more fun to be the beautiful foreigner. I had one girl tell me she's trying to tan and get my beautiful skin, haha, that is completely opposite of how asians view beauty.

Message

I got my first real massage ever today. My classmate YeJin took me to a place near our school. She found out it was my first massage and said she should have looked for the best one in town lol

It was nice enough though. It seems that this is very popular even among college students. (Most of the students in my program have traveled and gotten massages all around China) So I'm going to join in! lol

Not too often though, I need to save money for Japan.

It Still Hit Me

Yesterday I went to work for my classes (9:20a-12:30p). Then I had made plans to meet up with my new language partner (JiangYue). But of course that would be the day that the afternoon teacher had to call in sick. So I asked, even though it was our first time meeting up, if we could just do lunch and then I'd have to go back to work. She didn't mind coming back with me though.

When got back to the school my co-worker handed me the class' lesson plans and then while I was looking over them a couple of boys ran out of the classroom to get water. They turned around looked at me for a bit and then one goes "A real ghost! Whoa!" and his mom, i think, ran out the sitting room "HEY!!" and he says "but she soo ugly!" and of course she smacked him in the arm and dragged him out of the room giving him a good scolding.

My co-workers think I'm in the beginning stages of Chinese so they were silent with shocked faces. Of course I just smiled and then my language partner looks at me and says "Don't think too much about it they're still kids. They don't think before they talk."
I was very pleased that she'd said those words and didn't just look or pretend it didn't happen. I've read that at some (recent) point in time black people were called ghosts and ugly. And all asian societies firmly believe that the whiter you are the more beautiful. I haven't been called that directly or made fun of a lot since I've been here, but understanding what the child was saying and it's background still hurt a bit.


*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

JiangYue still showed me around after that and we switched back and forth between english and mandarin. I am happy to say that I've found the 3rd person who doesn't underestimate my understanding of the language. So I had to make sure I did something for her. She's a medical student who wants to be able to do the "in" things and start wearing make-up and so on. So I took her to Starbucks! No surprise that it's still "expensive" so she would only let me buy her the small size. She's only in town on the weekends but I think she and I will be good friends.

First Day of Cooking!!

I must tell you that cooking class is awesome. It's about 2hrs long and our program director is there to translate for us. So we all are in uniform and we watch the demonstration, taste test ,and then cook, taste test, and get a grade of 1-5.

For this class we cooked Tomatoe Scrambled Egg and Fried Potatoes Green Peppers.


I want to cook that for breakfast a lot!
It as bomb!!
Our Professor liked my egg mix but the potatoes were cooked too much. (they were supposed to be almost raw)

Too much teaching assistance

I have a job teaching English to young children at a school that I think has a pretty good set up. They give us teaching plans to expand on so that we an make the class our own. They have nice sized classrooms and the staff is pretty small so we can get to know everybody.

The school employs native English speakers as Teachers and Chinese-English speakers as Teaching Assistants. I think this is a great plan because the children's accents are definitely better than most of the people who learn English in a regular school and if they are stuck on a concept their is someone who can explain it to them perfectly.

Of course my TA obviously needs to go somewhere that she can be considered the teacher. She wants to control my class that I spent the time to make the lesson plans on. She throws in games and songs whenever she feels like it. (Usually when it gets quiet and the children seem to really start focusing on the lesson. I think she takes it as boredom.) But the reason I designed a time for them to do spelling is because they showed me that they like to show off how much they can read and write. She makes "break time" in the most inconvenient time. Then she is always speaking Chinese to them so they have really started slacking. Sometimes they just use Chinese to do my projects and the boss even came in one day when they were cheering and told her to make them speak English.

I want to tell my boss about it but I'm not sure how. I know that Chinese people don't like to be confronted so I want her boss to do it. I know this TA has been there for 2 yrs but I have taught before too and they learn best when the teachers pretend they don't speak Chinese and they get to show off their writing skills.

Cooking Class!!!

Like i said the cooking class is off campus at a real restaraunt. Our tteacher speaks no english but we get to wear real chef outfits (including the hat) and we got our own cutting board and cleaver. shhh.

lol i won't do too much harm.

we have 6 weeks of actual cooking and so i'll post how each class went. The first class was a taste test and this was friday so you can expect a post each friday.

get ready for lots of pics and maybe some horror stories.

Dorming It

I really like my dorm I just wish that we had more contact with the students. I mean we are on the top 2 floors of a hotel behind campus and our classes are all on the 2nd floor. ( Except for the cooking class. It's in a real, nice, restaurant.)

Anywho. We get our own room like this

and our bathroom is like this

but our shower is just.....there O.O

Of course we share a kitchen....but i can't say i'll be doing much cooking in it. It seems like no one knows how to clean.

My Intro

This blog will be the life i live in china as it happens.
I'll be as real as possible. I've been here for 2 weeks now.
I will travel to 4 popular sites and report the experience.
I hope more of you will want to visit china after this.
(yes, i'm specifically speaking to minorities)

but all are welcome!