Any good account of Asia will include a piece on the horrors of the continent's traffic. I am sure you have all heard of the congestion, the busyness, the downright lunacy of Chinese drivers. Well allow me to tell you that it is true... really, really, really true. The first thing that you have to understand about traffic here is that it is opposite from traffic in the US. This is what I mean: in the US small traffic, such as motorcycles, drives recklessly and fast while big traffic, such as semis, drive slow not wanting to hurt anyone. In China the opposite is true. Here the trucks drive fast, because no one would be stupid enough to get in their way, and the motoches drive carefully, because they are the most likely to die in the event of an accident. It creates a very weird dynamic when you are riding a motorcycle taxi but being passed on both sides by gigantic trucks, scary stuff indeed. Motorcycle taxis are cheaper, presumably because of the risk of dying and the cost of gas, and so that is our preferred method of travel into town. However, the normal car taxis are not a bad option either.
There are four kinds of drivers in China. The first is the safe driver. He understands that the foreigners in his car are of great value. That it would be terrible if we died and that we are really willing to pay a bit extra for a safe ride. The second is that fast driver. This man is a daredevil and expects others to be as well. The road is his oyster and he uses every part of it to get you to your destination. He understands that foreigners have a lot of money and that they are willing to pay a bit extra to be entertained. It must be noted that the driver is often the only one being entertained. He smiles with each screech of the tire and laughs each time I tighten my grip on the door handle.
The third driver is the incomprehensible driver. Like the previous driver they are willing to use any part of the road to their advantage, but this brand tends to be confused as to which side of the road he is supposed to be driving on. Often this driver will hug the left hand curb even though it would appear to be faster if he just stayed in the correct lane. They will often turn the car on and off at inappropriate times and will often be on their cell phone. The worst of all the drivers is the new driver. I was recently invited to dinner at a Chinese friend's house but before we ate we had to make a quick run to the grocery store. As I settled into the backseat my driver's husband turned to me and said, "She just got her license," with a large grin. This was the first time that I had put on a seat belt since moving to China. It was horrifying, I can not even explain it to you. I would have killed for any other sort of driver, even a most incomprehensible one. I survived but just barely.
The scary news is this... 3000 new drivers hit the road each week in this country. That's over 150,000 new drivers each year. Things are only going to get worse.
C. Johnson
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Xin Wen XiuaXao
I want to first apologize for how long it has been since I last posted. This can be attributed to two things. First, I am incredibly busy. Second, life here lacks a bit of the excitement that one would often associate with living in a foreign country. OK that second part is not true. At least once day I see something that is so Chinese, so unbelievably foreign that it makes me laugh, makes me think that I should post it, but unfortunately as I said I am busy.
Teaching is no longer as terrible as it was for the first few days. I am getting the hang of dealing with trouble makers and I am also learning how to streamline my lesson planning. I teach grades 2 and 3 (all of which are little monsters) and grades 6-9 which are quite an improvement. As today is Teacher's Day I want to discuss the school where I now work and reside.
My apartment is huge but quite dirty. It is on the ground floor of a 5 story dormitory for teachers. The kids also live on campus which means that the only time that I ever get any quiet time during the week is when I go to my apartment, close all my windows, and turn on some music. Literally everytime I leave my door a chorus of poorly pronounced "Hellos" greats me from the middle school dormitory. However, everyone else goes home on the weekends so it is not hard to get some peace and quiet after a long work week. I eat in the cafeteria, which will save me a ton of money in the long run, but may end up costing me my stomach. My favorite meal is breakfast but, as it is served at 6:15, it is also the meal I miss the most. The best time here at Xin Wen is on the weekends when Aimee and I eat with the maintnence staff, who live in hovel apartments just off campus. It is quiet and the food is delicious. Also, the maintnence staff has gotten used to our being there and so it is one of the few places where I don't feel like a foreigner.
The classrooms themselves are remarkably high tech, some with really nice projectors and some with 1980s big screen TVs that have extremely low resolution, and I do most of my lessons via powerpoint. I even got to show my older students my house on google earth. In between classes I feel like the Pied Piper leading a mass of children outside of their own classroom up to the door of my next class. Oh ya. The kids stay put... in theory. Each class has its own room where it stays all day. Each period the teachers have to move from class to class. Here I thought that after graduating college I would be able to stop living by the bell.
I have a shared office space with other 7-9 grade teachers on the 4th floor of the classroom building for those grades. Everyone is really nice in the office and a lot of the teachers sing while they do their work. This usually is very annoying for me. However here in China I really like it. The women to whom my back faces actually has quite a lovely voice. My desk backs up against my Chinese friend Monica's desk. It is a nice place to sit and talk with other teachers and some of the older students. It is also my refuge from the mass of bodies that tends to follow me from place to place.
I mentioned earlier that today is Teacher's Day. There is a gift of a red envelope waiting for me back at my apartment. The red envelope is the traditional way to gift money here in China, although I have no idea how much is in mine. As with almost everything in China, you also celebrate by drinking alcohol. The owner of the school was here with her family for lunch and, being that Aimee and I have "3D" faces, we were invited to join them. I was offered baijo (remeber white liquor) and beer, it would have been rude to have refused. Tonight we are going to KTV. yippee!
I have also joined the teacher's basketball team here. We are actually pretty good. The first game was against the Liuyang Hospital Staff. I scored 12 points and had 5 rebounds and 6 blocks. Oh ya and I hit the game winner. The funny part is that I didn't even know how much time was left. We had just taken a time out and I am sure there was a discussion about how the game was almost over and whatnot but of course it was in Chinese so.... So I took the shot and it went in. All of a sudden the students rushed the court and were jumping on me with my teammates... finally the respect I never got at Cardinal Newman. Even though there is a language barrier the team seems very excited to have me and I think that it will be a good diversion from classes and planning. Thanks to all for reading,
C. Johnson
P.S. Next post will feature taxis, and motorcycles, and a bar named PARTY. Talk to you soon.
Teaching is no longer as terrible as it was for the first few days. I am getting the hang of dealing with trouble makers and I am also learning how to streamline my lesson planning. I teach grades 2 and 3 (all of which are little monsters) and grades 6-9 which are quite an improvement. As today is Teacher's Day I want to discuss the school where I now work and reside.
My apartment is huge but quite dirty. It is on the ground floor of a 5 story dormitory for teachers. The kids also live on campus which means that the only time that I ever get any quiet time during the week is when I go to my apartment, close all my windows, and turn on some music. Literally everytime I leave my door a chorus of poorly pronounced "Hellos" greats me from the middle school dormitory. However, everyone else goes home on the weekends so it is not hard to get some peace and quiet after a long work week. I eat in the cafeteria, which will save me a ton of money in the long run, but may end up costing me my stomach. My favorite meal is breakfast but, as it is served at 6:15, it is also the meal I miss the most. The best time here at Xin Wen is on the weekends when Aimee and I eat with the maintnence staff, who live in hovel apartments just off campus. It is quiet and the food is delicious. Also, the maintnence staff has gotten used to our being there and so it is one of the few places where I don't feel like a foreigner.
The classrooms themselves are remarkably high tech, some with really nice projectors and some with 1980s big screen TVs that have extremely low resolution, and I do most of my lessons via powerpoint. I even got to show my older students my house on google earth. In between classes I feel like the Pied Piper leading a mass of children outside of their own classroom up to the door of my next class. Oh ya. The kids stay put... in theory. Each class has its own room where it stays all day. Each period the teachers have to move from class to class. Here I thought that after graduating college I would be able to stop living by the bell.
I have a shared office space with other 7-9 grade teachers on the 4th floor of the classroom building for those grades. Everyone is really nice in the office and a lot of the teachers sing while they do their work. This usually is very annoying for me. However here in China I really like it. The women to whom my back faces actually has quite a lovely voice. My desk backs up against my Chinese friend Monica's desk. It is a nice place to sit and talk with other teachers and some of the older students. It is also my refuge from the mass of bodies that tends to follow me from place to place.
I mentioned earlier that today is Teacher's Day. There is a gift of a red envelope waiting for me back at my apartment. The red envelope is the traditional way to gift money here in China, although I have no idea how much is in mine. As with almost everything in China, you also celebrate by drinking alcohol. The owner of the school was here with her family for lunch and, being that Aimee and I have "3D" faces, we were invited to join them. I was offered baijo (remeber white liquor) and beer, it would have been rude to have refused. Tonight we are going to KTV. yippee!
I have also joined the teacher's basketball team here. We are actually pretty good. The first game was against the Liuyang Hospital Staff. I scored 12 points and had 5 rebounds and 6 blocks. Oh ya and I hit the game winner. The funny part is that I didn't even know how much time was left. We had just taken a time out and I am sure there was a discussion about how the game was almost over and whatnot but of course it was in Chinese so.... So I took the shot and it went in. All of a sudden the students rushed the court and were jumping on me with my teammates... finally the respect I never got at Cardinal Newman. Even though there is a language barrier the team seems very excited to have me and I think that it will be a good diversion from classes and planning. Thanks to all for reading,
C. Johnson
P.S. Next post will feature taxis, and motorcycles, and a bar named PARTY. Talk to you soon.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
China Dreams
Classes have started and for the last few nights a strange thing has happened. I have had a series of very vivid dreams with reoccuring characters and an episodic plot. This is the first time in my life that I have had such dreams. The odd thing is that I am not dreaming that I am at home, like one would think. Instead I dream that I am in China... kind of. The China my brain creates is full of people speaking perfect English, kids who behave, clean living spaces, clean eating spaces, and of course plenty of free time to travel. The China that greets me every morning is very different. Few speak English (although that is good for my Mandarin), the kids are crazy (as kids tend to be), the living and eating standards or below what I would require in the U.S. (and yet I am now completely OK with that), and the reality is that I may have a hard time fitting in all the travel I want to do (haven't found the benefit of this yet).
The odd thing is that I prefer the real China. I wake every morning as if I had just had a nightmare. I am glad that China is hard, that it is challenging. If it was easy then everyone would do it and it wouldn't matter that I was. Of course I still get jealous when I hear Allison's stories of a relatively easy transition to Korea. I just know that this experience is forming me, just like every other one I have had.
I teach 8 sections of elementary school. These kids are hard. They really just want to play... which is the point of my class except they speak no English and so explaining things like the rules for a game is difficult. My other 12 sections are a blast. They vary from 6-9 grade and the class size varies from 20-40 students... many of my coworkers at Buckland teach classes of more than 120.
A terrible thing happened today. I began to care about my students. This is terrible because now nothing but the best will do for them. Which means that I have to provide it to them. No slapping together lesson plans for me. Wow I wish I hated these kids!
Below is a picture of my school from the office they have given me. I share a large office space with 12 other teachers from 6-9 grade.The circular building is the Xin Wen meeting hall. The building on the left is the first of three classroom buildings, which are five stories apiece... no stairs. Across the valley you can see some mountains, haven't climbed those yet. If the photo was a panoramic you would be able to see Liuyang City to the right, although it is a sprawling city and the downtown area has few buildings over 20 stories. More photos to come!
The odd thing is that I prefer the real China. I wake every morning as if I had just had a nightmare. I am glad that China is hard, that it is challenging. If it was easy then everyone would do it and it wouldn't matter that I was. Of course I still get jealous when I hear Allison's stories of a relatively easy transition to Korea. I just know that this experience is forming me, just like every other one I have had.
I teach 8 sections of elementary school. These kids are hard. They really just want to play... which is the point of my class except they speak no English and so explaining things like the rules for a game is difficult. My other 12 sections are a blast. They vary from 6-9 grade and the class size varies from 20-40 students... many of my coworkers at Buckland teach classes of more than 120.
A terrible thing happened today. I began to care about my students. This is terrible because now nothing but the best will do for them. Which means that I have to provide it to them. No slapping together lesson plans for me. Wow I wish I hated these kids!
Below is a picture of my school from the office they have given me. I share a large office space with 12 other teachers from 6-9 grade.The circular building is the Xin Wen meeting hall. The building on the left is the first of three classroom buildings, which are five stories apiece... no stairs. Across the valley you can see some mountains, haven't climbed those yet. If the photo was a panoramic you would be able to see Liuyang City to the right, although it is a sprawling city and the downtown area has few buildings over 20 stories. More photos to come!
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