So Much Hullabaloo

by Ruth

Christmas week is upon us and we are busy with all kinds of Christmas activities. China itself might not do much to celebrate Christmas (though I am seeing more Santa decorations on stores) but we celebrate in overdrive, since students all think Christmas is the greatest thing ever and want to get in on the action. We have started singing Christmas songs in all our classes. Our students (and in fact, most of the Chinese people I know) love singing. Last weekend we had a bunch of students over to make Christmas decorations and cookies and then more over to watch a Christmas movie.

Yesterday we had a teacher's tea. We haven't had too much success in the past with people coming, but this time 17 teachers came. They all know each other well and so there was lots of talking and laughing. Everyone was excited to try the cookies and wanted to know how we made them. They enjoyed singing Christmas songs (even insisted on singing the 12 Days of Christmas) and asked about all the weird words (“don we now our gay apparel” - think about it – Christmas songs use a lot of strange/old words). We played a hot-potato type “pass the present” game which of course involved punishment for whoever was caught with the present. What good game doesn't involve punishment? The favorite punishment is singing a song for everyone.

One of the teachers also asked about some other words from her textbook. She was trying to describe and spell a word but I couldn't figure out what it was. Finally it struck me - “hullabaloo.” And that was it. Glad to know they are learning useful words like hullabaloo, which I have heard but am pretty sure I've never used before. Incidentally, it is in the Office dictionary. Is that really necessary?

We also made up cookie plates to bring to some of the leaders and the people around campus who help us out – the copy guy, the mail lady, the guy who unlocks the classroom doors. They were surprised, pleased, and a bit confused. We also made up stockings for our waiban and her assistant. They were very interested and excited about the stockings. They both asked, “All of it is for me?” The assistant took out all the things right away and then excitedly helped the waiban open hers. She was almost jumping with excitement. It was fun.

This week we have a Christmas banquet, caroling with students, Christmas lecture, caroling in the dorms, a Christmas program, our own Christmas day activities (Christmas nap?), and on Saturday we will go to Xian to celebrate with a few other teachers. We have been invited to various student Christmas parties but already have other things going on. And of course, in the middle of all that we will have our regular classes and activities and are supposedly planning our finals for next week. So much hullabaloo.

Confusion All Around

by Ruth

The Store is Confused
Today Christina and I went to the supermarket. As we entered the store, we saw they had put out their stock of Christmas items so we perused through a bit. There were some small Christmas trees, various Styrofoam Christmas ornaments, Santa door/wall decorators, Santa hats, some Christmas cards...the normal kind of stuff. There was also a dark castle with a crazy/slightly evil looking cartoon character sticking out of it. There was a section of tiaras and various masks. There's usually a bit of confusion about which holiday belongs to with what, since none of them are really celebrated much.. There were also the traditional Christmas wands. I have personally never seen a Christmas wand in America before, but it seems that China can't celebrate without them. There are so many things I will never understand.

I am Confused
At the store, I also accidentally bought about 3 kilos of eggs...that's 45 eggs. Hmm. I wasn't really paying attention until the egg lady had already bagged them up, and then I suddenly realized, “Holy crap that's a lot of eggs! I'm not quite sure what just happened...” I bought them anyway because that seemed like the less confusing option and they were only about $2.50. Good thing we eat a lot of eggs. And that it's Christmas baking season. And that Kelly needed some eggs. And that eggs don't go bad too fast. It's a lot of eggs.

The Students are Confused
It's hard to believe that it's already December. We only have about three weeks left of the semester. Of course, we haven't ever quite officially heard when the end of the semester will be, but that's everyone's best guess. It seems like this semester has gone by so quickly. I never really even had time to hit the “I'm so sick of teaching phase.” Though lately I have been thinking a lot about the seeming futility of my teaching. By the time these students hit college their bad pronunciation is already so ingrained it's hard to believe that correcting it really makes any difference. Sometimes I think they are getting a new idea, but then I give them a test and realize they have no clue. It's a little discouraging. But, oh well. Now I get to supplement each class with Christmas songs, pictures of Christmas trees and such. If I can't teach them anything, at least I can entertain them.

Chinglish - Predeter mined

Chinglish - Predeter mined
Originally uploaded by kevsunblush

We just got done with a busy evening. Last week during office time one of my students asked: "Can we come and visit you at your department (sic) sometime? Our classmates visited last year, but we couldn't come."

Interpreting this to mean she wanted to visit our APPARTMENT, I said, "OK, how about Friday?"

So we were expecting those three or four students to come. We thought that perhaps we'd play a game. When we opened the door, there were no less than FOURTEEN students standing outside. Most were our students, but a few were tagalongs from other majors. Thankfully, they didn't seem to notice our shock. They were too excited about their first trip to a foreigner's home. A typical night in the lives of the famous foreigners of Weinan. Good times.

Chinglish book update:

For those hoping to order a copy of my Chinglish book: Chinese + English= Chinglish, I just got an email from Blurb, the publisher, saying that if you use either of these coupon codes, you'll get free shipping: BLURBSHIP or BLURBMERRY. But the offer is only valid through Dec. 8. Since the Christmas delivery deadline is Dec. 10, may as well get it shipped to you for free...

Go here to find out about the book: http://chinglishbook.blogspot.com/
or, if you have a copy of the book and would like to comment on it, you can visit here: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/648863.

Ok, enough shameless self=promotion. No more (not-so-subtle) hints that you should buy it (you should :-)).

Boardgames and Cults and Stuff

Settlers
Originally uploaded by Ruthie Marie

by Ruth
It is my belief that anyone should be a little leery of a game with a 20 page instruction manual. Nevertheless, for whatever reason (there was probably some cult brainwashing involved) we sat down tonight to figure out Cities and Knights, a more complex version of Settlers of Catan. An hour later, we had set up the game and read through the rules. I think there are about 167 of them, though I lost count at page 9. As we went through the rules I wondered who in the world came up with all of these. “Hey, let's make it so if you get three of these cards you can trade them in and flip this other card and then every time one of these three numbers are rolled along with this picture, you can get this third kind of card.” Somebody had to have been the first one to think of this. Probably a computer or mathematical genius with OCD tenancies and a twitch.

The game itself then lasted for about two hours, leaving me wondering, “How in the world did I ever get sucked into this? I hate long games. I boycott Monopoly.” Part of the length was probably due to looking back at the rule book every other turn. Who can honestly remember 167 rules? Kevin won, 13-12, so now we have each won the game once. Because yes, we have played this crazy game before and then decided to buy it for ourselves. That time I had a quick, decisive victory, so of course I liked the game.

You may have never heard of the game but get into the right circle and--bam--everyone you know is obsessed with it. Our dear friend Matt was introduced to the game over the summer and lost it about 10 times in a row...and then asked for it for his birthday. See - I ask you, is that a normal response? This is why I think there must be some kind of cult/brainwashing involved. That and the fact that after hating the game and refusing to play for two years, I unaccountably started playing it all the time. I'm not sure who is the mastermind behind this whole cult/conspiracy, but I strongly suspect that a certain former team leader of mine (*cough* Andy) is high up in the chain of command.

Tomorrow night some students are coming over to play games with us. I think we'll probably choose something a little bit simpler to play.

Chinglish - Please be quite

Chinglish - Please be quite
Originally uploaded by kevsunblush

Happy Chinglishy Thanksgiving everyone:

I thought I'd share a couple of the (admittedly cheesy) text messages from students: "A Star has 5 ends, a square has 4 ends, a triangle has 3 ends, a line has 2 ends, a life has 1 end and I hope your happiness has no end."

Or there's this one, sent by several students. I think I've gotten this one every year at Thanksgiving, in fact: "I open my wallet, find no money; I open my pocket find no coin; I open my life, find you, then I know how rich I am! Happy Thanks Giving Day."

BTW, a little shameless self-promotion for those who are looking for a unique Christmas gift, I'll remind you about my Chinglish book. Not sure if the coupon code I wrote about on this website still works (giving free shipping), because I can't actually access the site here in China (censors still block everything from Facebook and Blogger to the LA Times and USA Today), but check it out by following the link from here: http://chinglishbook.blogspot.com/.

Snow

Beginning of the Snow
Originally uploaded by Ruthie Marie

On Wednesday morning my parents left for the airport to head back to America. It is now Saturday morning and they are finally getting home.
As we waited outside for the school car that would take them to the airport, we shivered in the dismal weather. It was 33 degrees and sleeting heavily. Moments after they left the temperature dropped and the sleet changed to snow. Within a couple of hours everything was covered with snow, and it continued to snow all day long and into the next day. Apparently it’s the most snow they’ve gotten in years.
At the Xian airport, things were not going so well. Due to the snow and fog in Xian as well as storms throughout the entire northern part of China, 200 flights were grounded leaving 20,000 passengers stranded. My parent’s flight was supposed to leave at 11am…then at 2pm…then at 4pm. Sometime that evening, they actually got on the plane and sat on the plane for 7 hours before finally canceling the flight and sending everybody back off. After over 30 hours in the airport (where they met all kinds of interesting people and witnessed some interesting…ah…“social disturbance”), they were finally able to get to Beijing on one of the few flights that actually left that day. They said when the plane landed in Beijing everyone cheered. By this point they had already missed two international flights and had to wait for the next day, though fortunately this time at a hotel instead of the airport. I don’t know all the stories, so you’ll have to talk to them. But the happy ending is that they did finally get back home, only two days later than planned.

Back in Weinan, the snow is quite pretty, and we are quite cold. The weather has been maxing out in the 20’s and low 30’s and we still have no heat. It feels like Yangzhou. Wearing several layers of long-johns and a couple of sweaters. Sitting under blankets next to the tiny space heater. Unlike like Yangzhou, however, we will not stay this cold all winter. Tomorrow is the magical day…Heat Day!! An arbitrary date (November 15) on which these unknown heat-lords decide that it is late enough in the year for heat to be turned on all over the region. I’m going to stop writing before my hands seize up from cold, but before I do, one more thing almost as rare and monumental as Heat Day…

I actually put pictures online! The first ones really since last Christmas. So if you want to see a few pictures from my parents’ visit, you can check them out at www.flickr.com/photos/ruthiemarie.

Quarantine Fun

Class with masks
Originally uploaded by Ruthie Marie

By Ruth
The school quarantine continues. Students are still not allowed to leave campus unless they have a pass from the school…technically. As the quarantine period extends, however, the methods of getting around the rules multiply. Some students told us that people were making a profit by forging passes. Someone outside the school was charging students 1 kuai to use his ladder to climb over the wall.

The school campus is surrounded by a wall with two gates. Several guards stand at each gate monitoring (or at least appearing to monitor) who goes in and out. Should students get caught by the guards, some of them will ask for bribes. Our student said, “If you pay the guards some money, you will not get in trouble. Of course, it is illegal.” Most of the students don’t want to pay the guards because they ask for too much money, and the students would rather just get in trouble. Very few students choose either of these gates as their methods of escape, however.

For a while we have been hearing about students climbing over the wall. One of our students, who is part of the student government, said she and other student government members were assigned to watch different places in the wall during lunch and dinner hours, to stop students from climbing over. However, if a student was especially nice and seemed to have a good reason, she said, she would probably let them by.

Yesterday our student was telling us that now they don’t have to climb the wall – some students have knocked a whole in the wall and you can walk right through! It is like their own little private gate.
“I think maybe in a few days the school will mend the hole,” she said. “But then the students will make a new hole.”

She also told us that one student had posted a map online showing all the places to get out of the school. “There are seven places we can leave the school. Two are the school gates; there is one behind the #2 dormitory and another behind the #4 dormitory; one by the athletic stadium…” The online post not only showed all these places, it also ranked them with stars according to difficulty! “Of course, the school found out about this and was angry,” our student said.

One of the office workers came to me last week and told me that the roommate of one of the boys in my class was sick, so all the students were supposed to wear masks in class and we should keep the windows open. When I went to class, though, less than half the class was wearing masks. I asked them, “Where are your masks?” And they said, “Oh, we forgot them.” Those that were wearing masks took them off to talk and gradually pushed them down under their noses or all the way down to their chins. By the end of class about three people were still wearing masks.

So we find the whole quarantine thing pretty funny. For our part, we aren’t going to the major supermarkets (as much), we aren’t eating out (every day), we aren’t (telling the school about) going to Xian, we are taking our temperatures twice a day (if we happen to remember), and we are wearing our masks (long enough to take a picture).

Candy Auntie and Mr. Holy

School radio program
Originally uploaded by Ruthie Marie

My parents have been here for two weeks and it seems like every day has been packed. We went to Beijing (Great Wall, Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven) and to Xian (Terra Cotta Soldiers, City Wall, Wild Goose Pagoda, Muslim quarter). Last week my parents came to most of my classes to introduce themselves, answer questions, and talk to students. This week my mom has come and helped with a “Southern Day” lesson in some of my classes. They have come to my office hours. We have had students over to our apartment. My mom taught a culture lecture. They have been on the school radio program. I’m taking full advantage of their visit and keeping them very busy.

Their visit has resulted in lots of funny student stories over the past couple of weeks which I would tell you about if I wasn’t so tired. So I’ll just give you a taste: the school radio broadcast.

One of my students, Lara, does a live English broadcast on the school radio (the one blasted on loudspeakers throughout the whole campus each day at lunch or dinner). I have been on the program twice; Kevin has been on it once. Last week in class Lara came and asked if my parents would be on the program. I said I’d have to ask them, and she was terribly excited when they agreed. Lara is excitable, talkative, and scattered. When she gets excited she talks very quickly and becomes increasingly more scattered.

On the day of the program, Lara explained the questions she had prepared for the broadcast. She met us and led us to the broadcast station, a small room in the classroom building with a closed sized area partitioned off for the broadcast. On the way, Lara asked my mom what she should call her. She said it was very difficult for her to say “Mrs. Hull” but she wanted something that would show respect.
“In China,” she said, “We would call someone auntie.”
“That’s good,” my mom said. “You can call me Auntie Candy.”
Lara liked the idea but could never quite get that straight and kept saying “Candy Auntie” instead. For my dad, she decided to stick with Mr. Hull, but she said it “Mr. Holy.”

Several of my students were there waiting for us. They weren’t related to the radio program, but they wanted to get in on the action. There were also several broadcast students eagerly looking on. By the end of the program, there were probably a dozen people crowded excitedly in the room.

The radio program consisted of Lara asking my parents a bunch of questions. The questions were wide ranging, varying from “How do you celebrate Christmas?” to “What are events that influenced your lives?” Some of the questions were a little more out of the blue, such as, “Some people do things that they enjoy and others do them just for money. For example, Clinton’s lover has written a book. What do you think about this?”

Lara said, “I hope that you won’t use any difficult words that I won’t understand because then I will feel embarrassed.” She kept talking about how nervous she was. I think perhaps the more nervous she is, the more she talks.

After the program, Lara told us they had recorded it to post on the internet so other schools could listen to the broadcast as well. So now my parents are famous.

There are lots of other funny stories (how can there not be, when you are teaching students to speak with a Southern accent and repeat things like, “She ain’t like the rest of us” and “He’s not so smart, bless his heart.” It was great fun.). But I will save some of those for our next newsletter…which I plan to make my parents write.

H1N1 Quarantine

Great Wall - Kevin & Ruth masks
Originally uploaded by kevsunblush

It is officially quarantine time here in Weinan.

The school frantically sent us a message at 8:30 last Wednesday morning: "Sorry to bother you this early, there is an emergence (sic), the school identified one case of flu last night, it is a student from biology department, so we need to talk about this, are you free this morning?"

So we scrambled over to the waiban's office and learned that the night before, school officials were called together for an emergency meeting at 10 p.m. because there were now 15 cases of swine flu in Weinan. Eight cases had been identified at the Railway University in another part of town and one here. "It is a very serious situation."

We knew China was taking H1N1 (the swine flu) seriously when they monitored everyone's temperatures who walked through the Beijing airport and asked us to provide contact information in case anyone on the plane sitting near us had been infected. We even heard stories of people who received daily calls asking if they were alright.

We knew the school was beginning to take H1N1 seriously when they handed us thermometers a month ago and asked us to monitor our temperatures daily, informing school officials if it topped 38 C (100.4 F). Now, they want to be notified if our temperature crosses 37.5 C (99.5). They also began checking IDs at the school gates to limit access. Several schools in Xi'an had already implemented full-blown quarantines, not allowing anyone off-campus, so we crossed our fingers that this wouldn't spread to Weinan.

Now that an infected student on campus has been found, the game has changed.

So the new rules: "Students will not be allowed to leave campus unless they have very urgent business and a note from the dean."

Teachers will be allowed to leave campus, but are be strongly urged not to do so unless absolutely necessary. "

You'd think that someone had died, not just gotten a case of the flu, but the fallout in China after their failure to stop the spread of bird flu a few years ago had them kicking precautionary measures into overdrive here.

Thankfully they only FORBADE us from going to two places: the two big, crowded supermarkets where we do most of our grocery shopping.

"You should avoid crowded areas," we were told. "Also, it is better if you cook at home rather than going to restaurants."

Unfortunately, there was a problem: We are about to leave for Beijing, since Ruth's parents were about to board their flight to visit us only a few hours after we were notified of the quarantine. It's a bit difficult to avoid crowded places in a city of some 17 million people.

"Maybe you should wear a mask."

"Do you know where we can buy one?" I asked, thinking that probably the now off-limits supermarkets might be our best bet. The school gave us several for the trip.

We did just come back from a few days in Beijing with Ruth's parents (we took them to the Great Wall, where the leaves were turning orange and yellow, the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen, the Hutongs an acrobat show and our favorite Chinese Mexican restaurant: Pete's Tex-Mex). Now we're wondering just how much off-campus exploration of China they're going to be allowed to do. When we first arrived from the train station, the guard asked to see our IDs. We probably were only allowed to enter because of our foreignness. I was able to leave campus yesterday to buy some groceries at a smaller nearby store, but it'll be a shame for them to come to China and not be able to go anywhere or eat Chinese food. What happens when we take them to Xi'an this weekend? Not quite sure.

We'll see. So far, I've only seen a handful of students and a few teachers walking around campus wearing protective masks.

Then again, this afternoon, one of the workers in the English department stopped Ruth, asking if she taught a particular class. "The roommate of one of the students in your class has H1N1, so all of your students will be required to wear masks when they are in the dormitory and while they are in the classroom so that nobody else gets sick."

Rumors among students are swirling that perhaps as many as 100 students aren't allowed to leave their rooms and that at least three are symptomatic. Students, many of whom live nearby and go home every weekend, are already getting stir-crazy. At least one has admitted to burrowing through a tiny hole in the fence so she can see her boyfriend off campus.

Being Eaten by a Lion...and other things that surprise me

Eaten by a Lion
Originally uploaded by Ruthie Marie

The other day I bought eggs at the grocery store. Usually they come about 15 in a plastic bag, and they are still covered with poop and dirt and feathers. This time when I took them out of the bag to wash them, the eggs were all clean. I didn’t see a single bit of poop on anyone of them. My natural response was suspicion. “This can’t be right. What is wrong with these eggs?”
Then I began thinking about how my natural responses to things are becoming a little bit strange. Why would I be suspicious about eggs just because they happen to be clean?

The past few days I have noticed several other unusual things that surprise me. For example…
*Today I went to shut the door in my classroom and thought something seemed strange. Then I realized it was because the door actually had a doorknob.
*I got through my entire lesson plan for the first time this semester.
*I went to a website the other day and it wasn’t blocked.
*80% of my students didn’t copy their homework from the internet.
*The good cooking smell in the hallway tonight was actually coming from my apartment (the benefits of the crockpot).

In other news, my parents will be coming in just a few days! They will be here visiting for about two and a half weeks. While here, I am making them come to/teach my classes, give culture lectures, clean the apartment (oops, haven’t told them that yet). Actually, we have been doing lots of cleaning getting ready for them to come. I always forget how big our office is when the floor isn’t covered with stacks of papers. It’s like a new room.

Anyway, we’ll probably be pretty busy while they’re here and might not be doing a bunch of blogging. Unless I make them write a blog. That’s actually a great idea…guest bloggers. I should look into that.

About that lion...the random pictures which are appearing in every post are due to the fact that blogger is one of the 10,000,000,031 websites that are blocked. Flickr, strangely, surprisingly, is not blocked, so we are able to upload blogs by posting them with a picture. So we upload the blog in Flickr, it then goes to Blogspot, which then imports it to Facebook. My how we do get around. Seriously though, this blocking thing is driving me crazy. The special holiday is over – give us back our webpages!