Thanksgiving in China

Happy belated Thanksgiving! I introduced the idea of Thanksgiving to a couple of my classes last week and had them write down what they were thankful for. Some common responses were mom, dad, grandfather, grandmother, family, teacher, cat, dog, pig, and pencil box.

"Mom, thank you."

"I'm thankful for my grandmother because when I was small I was very naughty, so now that I've grown I want to thank her."

"Mother, father, teacher."

"Father and mother" "Cat, because when I'm unhappy it keeps me company."

Myself, I definitely thank my kids for being so enthusiastic. I may not have a cat to keep me company here, but at least my students are happy to see me when I walk into the classroom. And it makes a big difference.

I was luckily enough to be able to meet up with some other fellows in Baoshan and celebrate Thanksgiving by cooking as close approximations to Thanksgiving foods as we could manage. In other words: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with cranberries, fresh peas, green beans with garlic and onion. And for desert (all made in a rice cooker!): apple crisp, banana bread, pumpkin bread, pumpkin-oat-chocolate chip squares, and chocolate-pumpkin pudding cake.

Two of the fellows in Baoshan have a kitchen with a fridge (still no stove or oven though, just a hot plate and rice cooker, a typical setup in China). We also had some Chinese guests who have befriended these fellows. We were told there would be six of them--and cooked accordingly--but they mostly didn't eat the Thanksgiving food, instead opting to watch us cook and eat instead. Two Chinese fellows also joined us, though, and they really liked a lot of the food.

Yes, there was meat too, but that was cooked Chinese-barbecue-style by the Chinese guests.

It was a fun weekend and convinced me to invest in a rice cooker and some baking supplies. I even found nutmeg and cloves at the import store! And of course the company was excellent. So much to be thankful for.

*Thanks to Kelsey for the photos!

Ginkgo Village and Volcano Park, 银杏村和火山公园

The head principal of the Jietou region organized a trip for all the Teach for China fellows in our region to visit Ginkgo Village and Volcano Park yesterday (the equivalent American position would be superintendent of a school district). It was nice to get out on the weekend and see other fellows. It was especially nice to chat in English since Katherine's in the US at the moment, so it's been two weeks since I've been able to do that!

The ginkgo trees themselves were very pretty and the town was picturesque.

But it was also swarmed by tourists. The leaves turn yellow at this time of year and the tourists converge on the village. I've never before been in a traffic jam in rural China. There were lots of stands of food, tea, and trinkets to buy, including the following.

Roasting pig.

Walnuts at the upper left, ginkgo nuts at the bottom right, and many other mystery foods.

Shell animals.

Particularly appropriate for the hedgehog.

Many of the tourists bought these ginkgo-leaf crowns:

To avoid the crowds, we walked out of the town and up the hill to a landscape viewing platform, on the way...

Baby water buffaloes!

Looking towards town.

On the way back from the village we stopped at Volcano Park. Many of the hills in the area are dormant volcanoes. This one has just been developed into a park. 

Too bad...I was planning on excavating...!

My principal (on the left) and another education leader
on the way down the volcano.

Our last stop was a scenic overview of a columnar basalt formation. It's been slightly marred by the housing development that's been built on top, but the rock formation is pretty impressive. Although I'm still somewhat baffled by the Chinese tourist industry, it was quite a nice Saturday.

Roar!

I'm not a Katy Perry fan. But I am a fan of tigers. And of roaring. Since we learned animals--including tiger--last week, I thought I'd play Roar for my students this week. Actually, only two classes listened. The other two were misbehaving and lost song-listening privileges. Anyway, they really liked it!

It feels like birds next to me singing.

Very happy!

"Because this song is very moving."

"I think the tiger is going to eat the little rabbit."

Local Scenery

Now that I've dealt with catching up all my classes, I can appreciate last week's picnic more. It was a nice sunny, and therefore warm, afternoon, just the kind of day that people in Chinese cities wish for. Here are some pictures of the scenery.

The road outside the park, half-covered in rice.

Keeping the rice in the sun.

A bridge just outside the park.

The park itself was highly manicured with an artificial pond, decorative rocks, and various plants and flowers.

The entrance.

A Glimpse of My Classrooms

Obviously I can't take pictures of my own classes (at least, not without major disruption), but last month I was observed by local teachers. Here are a few snapshots from the video they took.

Students who have earned English names introduce themselves at the beginning of class. 

"Say leg to yourself five times..." We do this to practice harder words (although leg is a short, it's the hardest body part for them!).
After five times, I signal them to stop...there's always one or two boys who keep going...sometimes on purpose, but usually obliviously.

"Shake your body!" This one's a favorite!

Picnic time!

On Wednesday the whole school had outdoor activities. The fourth, fifth, and sixth graders went hiking and the first, second, and third graders (about six hundred students!) went for a picnic. I was told I could choose whichever activity, and although I was tempted to go for the hike, I decided to go with my own students. And I'm glad I did.

Apparently in past years students have made their own food at the picnic site, but this year--since the school has doubled in size--there just wasn't a good place to do this. The challenge, it was explained to me, was finding a place with clean water. The only places large enough and with clean enough water are too far away for the younger students to walk to.

Although the hiking took all day, our picnic was just in the afternoon. Which meant that I had two classes to teach in the morning. They were slightly painful because the students were so excited about the picnic that they weren't very good about listening to class. Outside of class their excitement was even more palpable as they prepared, filling their bags with all sorts of snacks (a whole pile of which I ended up with by the end of they day: at least twenty oranges, several apples, lollipops, a packaged sausage, a puffed rice treat, and other assorted candies).

I figured this would be a great opportunity to take pictures of my students. I hadn't yet had my camera out around them, anticipating the chaos that would ensue from two hundred students wanting their pictures taken. Said chaos did, in fact, ensue. But at least the students were spread out around the park a little bit so I was usually only mobbed by about twenty of them at a time. Here are some of the group pictures.

In front of the school, waiting in lines for instructions and the order to go!

Seemingly endless line of students.

Lined up at the entrance to the park. Each class had its own flag...not unlike a Chinese tourist group on the Princeton campus!

"Move back, move back, move back!"

Even some of the more mischievous boys asked me to take their pictures! 

Food!