A visitor!!!

So it’s been an eventful week!

This past Tuesday when Meghan, Maggie and I were leaving lunch from the cafeteria on campus, we were stopped by Ms. Yee, who is the head of the English Teaching Department on campus. She asked if Meghan and I were doing anything the next way (Wednesday) in the afternoon, because she wanted us to be judges in the English Speaking (speech) competition. Meghan and I at first tried to object stating that we would have to cancel a class. The reason why we were objecting at first, is because the previous Wednesday we had no class due to the opening ceremonies of the arts festival; thus we would be cancelling two weeks worth of class (since each of our classes only meets once per week). So, by cancelling class for the competition means that we would have only had one class session with our Wednesday classes instead of the three that we have had with the rest of our first-year classes. Ms. Yee did not think this was a big deal, which is somewhat typical for over here. It was apparently more important for us to judge the English speaking competition. So, we gave in.

The next day, Wednesday, we arrived to campus and went up to the 8th floor of the library where the competition was. It was nice and the students did a very good job. None of my students were in the competition, but two of Meghan’s were. There were 21 students who participated and each had three to five minutes to deliver their speech. It was not required for students to write their own speech, they also had the choice to read a published piece or article. So, we were not exactly sure on some of them if these were their students own work or published, but on others we were able to tell by the content of the speech. Overall, I was impressed, they did a fantastic job. The one strange part of the day was at the end they were giving out the awards. They had one first place winner, I think three second place winners and like 5 or 6 third place winners. With no notice, a student who helped organize the event gave Meghan and Me folders (to put certificates in) to award to the students who came in third place. We had no idea what to do, since we had no notice as to what was going on. It was a little awkward with a couple of long pauses/delays. Oh well….

That was basically the main excitement for the week.

Then, on Thursday and Friday of this week Kirk, the director of my program came to visit. Kirk head up the program that I am here in China through, which is called the Chinese Cultural Exchange Program. He is a huge resource and help for us back at Drake, and conducted an intensive training program on Mandarin Chinese, teaching and cultural aspects of China. Without Kirks help this summer, my transition here to China would not have gone as smoothly as it did. So, it was time for Kirk’s big visit to China. During this visit he goes around and visits all the schools where Drake alum, who are participating in this program, are teaching. He stayed in Chengde for 1 night. He arrived on Thursday. We were told by one of our Waibans that it would be lunch with her, Kirk, Meghan and I at 11 am on Thursday, and we were to meet outside of the hotel where Kirk was staying (luckily, about 5 minute walk from where we live). We met there, and hopped in a car and went to lunch. Little did we know that this was a banquet. It would have been nice to have some advance notice, as Meghan and I were in what we normally teach in (jeans and sweaters, nothing too fancy). Oh well, we will learn for next time I guess. In China, in formal situations, the distance you are from the door is important. We were eating in a private room, and there was an university employee who was the president or director of something (I don’t remember) who was the first person we were introduced to. He then took the seat furthest from the door (meaning the most important guest) then told everyone where to sit. He sat in the middle of Kirk and I, then Meghan sat directly to my left. The food at the banquet was very good. There was tofu, donkey, some pork dish (which I didn’t eat), dumplings, a lot of good stuff. It is also customary at these event to drink Baijo (I can’t spell), which is a white alcohol. It is very strong. Meghan and I both had class so we asked for coconut juice instead. We have heard about how banquets can result in a lot of drinking because each person will want to have a drink, or cheers, with each individual person. However, this banquet was very tame. Only a couple of the eightish people in the room had Baijo and they were seemingly not drunk. They just sipped it, instead of downing it cup by cup.

After that, we headed back to the car and went to campus. Kirk went up to the Foreign Affairs Office with Laura, to talk shop. We were invited to come up, but instead we decided to sit outside in a shady spot and listen to some music because it was a beautiful afternoon outside. Kirk, however, did arrange to come into each of our classes to say hi and meet our students.

So, I went to my class, which was a small class. It is only like 40 first year psychology students. In that class, I started it off like I do the rest of my first year classes, Meghan and I actually got the idea from Matt who is a more experienced teacher here. We call up five students (randomly) and give them a pretty simple word in English. Then, without any time to prepare, I asked the students to speak for approximately 15-30 seconds about that word. This helps build confidence and let students know that their English is actually much better than they think it is. So, Kirk came in the middle of that. After the last student went, Kirk came in and asked if he could speak about a word. So, I said sure, and we asked the class which word Kirk should speak about. One of my students suggested the word, “Chengde” which is the city that we live in. Kirk spoke for a few seconds about it, then received a piece of candy. Before Kirk came, I told the class that a very important friend of mine was coming. I also warned them that he understands Chinese so they need to be mindful of what they say, however they must address him in English. I then opened the floor for questions, and in the middle of questions (when their was a long pause as we waited for students to ask questions) Kirk said that he is not leaving until he has been asked five questions. Most of the questions were pretty basic such as does he have a Chinese name, etc. They were all very impressed that Kirk was able to speak and write Chinese. Two funny questions/answers that came from the class. One of my students asked Kirk was THE major difference between China and US was. The first thing I thought was, “like there’s really just one difference?”. Kirk had an awesome response. He asked my class “How many years of history does China have?” The students answered about 5,000. So he wrote that one the board. Then he asked the class how many years of history does America have? There was a wide range of answers with this one. Kirk then wrote, 232 on the board. Then he asked the students, “So what’s the difference?” After a few seconds, the students understood that this was a math question. The came to the answer of 5768. So, Kirk then said, “That’s the difference between China and America…5,768”. I was standing in the corner laughing when he said that. The last question came from an entertaining student in my class who is kind of a smart-ass as times, but still a very nice kid. His name is Johnniey. It is pronounced like Jonny, but I think he must’ve been trying to include every possible way to spell the name “Johnny” in his spelling. He stood up and asked Kirk, “how did you get here?”. Kirk’s response was somewhat sarcastic, but fitting given who asked the question. His response was, “I kissed my wife goodbye, I left my house, got into a car, when to the airport...” and literally walked the students through every step, but in a very entertaining way. After that, Kirk left my class and we continued on. However, after Kirk left, Johnniey raised his hand. He said, “Kirk speaks Chinese very well, better than you do”. I told him, “Yes he does. You should remember though that Kirk lived in China for three years and I have only been here about seven weeks”. To which Johnniey responded, “He must be smart…smarter than you.” I laughed, and we carried on.

After class was done, Meghan and I headed back to our apartments to get ready for dinner. We met Kirk outside his hotel and then walked over to the restaurant to meet the other Drake kids who teach at the Teacher’s College. We went back to the BBQ where our friend serena took us. We had a great meal consisting of Spicy chicken, beef, rice, fried dough balls that you dunked in this milky sauce stuff, potatoes, onions, etc. At this restaurant they bring all the food out raw, then there is a little grill in the middle of the table and you cook your own food. We also had an assortment of drinks that I hadn’t had before. We had the standard tea and coke, but then we got a couple different flavors of this flavored milk stuff. It was good.

Then, it was off to the western restaurant for some crazy deserts. You will have to see the photos to understand what I am talking about, but these were some of the craziest deserts I have ever seen. It was really funny because they had names like, “lust” or “together” but there were no descriptions (or even notes of what flavors of ice cream were used). When Kirk asked the waitress about this in Chinese, she responded, “It’s whatever the cooks give me.” You know it’s bad when even the waitress has no idea what the deserts are. We all attempted to order different deserts so we could see what they looked like. I won’t write about each one, but when I post the photos of the deserts onto my photo page, I will include the name of each. A few are worth a good laugh.

It was a great trip, and nice to have a visitor! Sorry for the long note, but just thought I’d let you know everything that happened last week!