highlights of conversations with students
so it's sasha's in qinhuangdao, oliver's in chengde, and jason's in jiangjiakou. i haven't reached shirley yet to confirm tangshan, which is too bad since that's where i'm planning on going tomorrow:) luckily, i'm only planning one night there, and i have other students' phone numbers there, just in case.
so after typing my other post today, about the track meet, my computer kinda froze up, so i assumed the post hadn't gone through. thank goodness it did. i wasn't excited about trying to retype it.
today was a huge student fraternization day for me. HUGE. i've had days with more hours with students, but not with this kind of variety. aside from the random pleasantries, i had sustained one-on-one conversations with rusally, samantha, jennifer, julia, margaret, wendy, and doreen. rusally was in a bad mood because i guess some students have been bad-mouthing her behind her back. samantha told me about how, after watching some english-language movie, she decided she wanted to speak only in english from then on, and was doing pretty well until her roommates booed her down, saying her accent was too terrible:) jennifer told me a lot of academic stuff, like how being class moniter actually sucks, because the students don't like you for the rules you have to enforce, but at least you get your grade bumped up at the end of each semester. julia told me she hates the japanese and they should start being more honest about their past, like the chinese are. while i talked to her boyfriend on the phone, margaret audibly fed him english ("my ...parents ...welcome ...you ...to ...our ...home"), then came on herself to remind me that i don't dress warmly enough, so PLEASE to bring warm clothes this week. wendy and i talked about the type of people who are too nice for their own good, and she explained the phrase for that in chinese, which ties in to a story about a man who saw a frozen snake on the ground (he felt "very pity" and so held it to his chest to warm it. of course, the snake, once revived, bit him on the chest and he died). doreen (who did win the high jump, setting a new school record) bought me an orange icy drink and told me about a mountain in her hometown (my last stop this next week) which, if you go to it and pray at a certain temple, will get you pregnant:) do you think that means it'll find me a husband too?
another highlight from students tonight--well, two more--came from phone calls to double check with the people i'm supposed to visit this week. i tried to call shirley in tangshan, but her cell phone number didn't work. so i called her home phone number, which i'm loathe to do here usually, cause if the person i'm looking for doesn't answer first, things never seem to get figured out. so someone answered and i said "nihao." so far so good. then i said "is shirley there?" this was a stupid thing to say to someone who doesn't speak english, and i know i should have asked for her by her chinese name, but i don't know it:) so over the next five minutes, the phone was passed to several different people, none of whom spoke english, all of whom seemed very confused. eventually, i think they just hung up:) i'll try calling again tomorrow. the other fun phone call was to oliver. she's a funny girl. i'd just gotten off the phone with the confused people, so when oliver picked up and said hello (on her cell phone) i stupidly said, "is oliver there?" i have no idea why i said that. anyway, she said "no!" and we laughed at her little joke and proceeded:) she'll be really fun to hang out with. but i found out she doesn't actually live in the city i'm visiting. she lives 100km (or was it miles?) or so outside the city, so i'll need to call her when i'm two hours away so she can get into town. this sucks a bit as i'm guessing that means i'll be finding a hotel in chengde. ah well, she can help me find a cheap one:) you can bargain for cheaper prices at hotels here. it's really weird.
i also found out tonight that jason's uncle is going to drive us back from jiangjiakou. this is really cool, cause it would have been an 11 hour train ride. however, it might make for a looooooooooooooong stilted conversation. jason knows maybe just a pinch more english than i know chinese.
i plan on sleeping in tomorrow. i'm sick of this seven a.m. crap. might skip tangshan altogether. oh, and p.s. you may remember tangshan as the epicenter of a huge earthquake back in the late 70s. yep. that's its claim to fame. that's it. worth visiting, i think, but not staying in for long.
so after typing my other post today, about the track meet, my computer kinda froze up, so i assumed the post hadn't gone through. thank goodness it did. i wasn't excited about trying to retype it.
today was a huge student fraternization day for me. HUGE. i've had days with more hours with students, but not with this kind of variety. aside from the random pleasantries, i had sustained one-on-one conversations with rusally, samantha, jennifer, julia, margaret, wendy, and doreen. rusally was in a bad mood because i guess some students have been bad-mouthing her behind her back. samantha told me about how, after watching some english-language movie, she decided she wanted to speak only in english from then on, and was doing pretty well until her roommates booed her down, saying her accent was too terrible:) jennifer told me a lot of academic stuff, like how being class moniter actually sucks, because the students don't like you for the rules you have to enforce, but at least you get your grade bumped up at the end of each semester. julia told me she hates the japanese and they should start being more honest about their past, like the chinese are. while i talked to her boyfriend on the phone, margaret audibly fed him english ("my ...parents ...welcome ...you ...to ...our ...home"), then came on herself to remind me that i don't dress warmly enough, so PLEASE to bring warm clothes this week. wendy and i talked about the type of people who are too nice for their own good, and she explained the phrase for that in chinese, which ties in to a story about a man who saw a frozen snake on the ground (he felt "very pity" and so held it to his chest to warm it. of course, the snake, once revived, bit him on the chest and he died). doreen (who did win the high jump, setting a new school record) bought me an orange icy drink and told me about a mountain in her hometown (my last stop this next week) which, if you go to it and pray at a certain temple, will get you pregnant:) do you think that means it'll find me a husband too?
another highlight from students tonight--well, two more--came from phone calls to double check with the people i'm supposed to visit this week. i tried to call shirley in tangshan, but her cell phone number didn't work. so i called her home phone number, which i'm loathe to do here usually, cause if the person i'm looking for doesn't answer first, things never seem to get figured out. so someone answered and i said "nihao." so far so good. then i said "is shirley there?" this was a stupid thing to say to someone who doesn't speak english, and i know i should have asked for her by her chinese name, but i don't know it:) so over the next five minutes, the phone was passed to several different people, none of whom spoke english, all of whom seemed very confused. eventually, i think they just hung up:) i'll try calling again tomorrow. the other fun phone call was to oliver. she's a funny girl. i'd just gotten off the phone with the confused people, so when oliver picked up and said hello (on her cell phone) i stupidly said, "is oliver there?" i have no idea why i said that. anyway, she said "no!" and we laughed at her little joke and proceeded:) she'll be really fun to hang out with. but i found out she doesn't actually live in the city i'm visiting. she lives 100km (or was it miles?) or so outside the city, so i'll need to call her when i'm two hours away so she can get into town. this sucks a bit as i'm guessing that means i'll be finding a hotel in chengde. ah well, she can help me find a cheap one:) you can bargain for cheaper prices at hotels here. it's really weird.
i also found out tonight that jason's uncle is going to drive us back from jiangjiakou. this is really cool, cause it would have been an 11 hour train ride. however, it might make for a looooooooooooooong stilted conversation. jason knows maybe just a pinch more english than i know chinese.
i plan on sleeping in tomorrow. i'm sick of this seven a.m. crap. might skip tangshan altogether. oh, and p.s. you may remember tangshan as the epicenter of a huge earthquake back in the late 70s. yep. that's its claim to fame. that's it. worth visiting, i think, but not staying in for long.