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| Sunset behind the school. |
I wasn't supposed to have duty again until the end of the month. But my cofellow was supposed to be on duty this week and needs to take a few days off to do research for her masters thesis. So she asked if I could switch with her. So here I am trying to survive another week of duty.
This time I have to sleep in the student dorms. So far nothing of note has happened--thankfully. But I did decide that if I have to sleep in the dorms I might as well read my students a bedtime story. I chose Harold and the Purple Crayon. There's a lot in it that they don't understand, but at least they understand "purple" and "crayon"! There are four rooms of third grade girls on the fourth floor so I'm reading to one room per night. The first two rooms were really excited and repeated words they found interesting after me. The third room spent much of the time giggling. We'll see what the fourth room is like tonight.
Although duty is extremely tiring I'm starting to feel more a part the community here. Reading bedtime stories certainly helps (sometimes when I'm patrolling the hall I avoid walking past my third graders who are at the end of the hall because if they see me walk by they'll all get up and shout "Hello Miss Nan" instead of going to sleep). The way the kitchen staff welcome and feed me is also really heartwarming. We have a hard time communicating much because they only speak the local dialect and not standard Mandarin, but they still welcome me in and make sure that I'm well fed. This week my mealtime task has been to watch over the Hui (Muslim ethnic group) cafeteria instead of the main cafeteria. This is actually really nice because there are fewer students so it's not quite the mad rush of the big cafeteria. This gives me more time to talk to the students--even if just to say hello or good morning--instead of constantly pulling them into lines (although there are still line-cutting students...most of them have the decency to look abashed when I tell them to get in line...some of them, however, just back away and try to wait until I turn my back...needless to say, this doesn't work very well).
I've also been asked to participate in the inter-school talent show in two weeks. At first my principal wanted the four Teach For China fellows to do our own segment, but eventually it was decided that I would sing the song that ten of the local female teachers will be fan dancing to. Although this ups the pressure, it also has given me the opportunity to spend more time with them in a slightly different context. I'm still learning the song, but a lot of them are still learning the dance, and we can all laugh when fans slip to the floor.
Here's the song that I'll be singing, 春江花月夜 (literally Spring River Flower Moon Night, or A Moonlit Night On The Spring River).
It took them awhile to find me a suitable costume because Chinese women tend to be smaller and shorter than me. I'm used to my height being pretty unremarkable, but my local teachers keep commenting on how tall I am. A few of them asked exactly how tall I am and I didn't know how to answer in meters. I have since figured out the conversion, but I'm still not sure how to say it. I did learn when buying bedding, however, that they don't say "one-point-two meters" but "one-meter-two". But do I say "one-meter-sixty-seven" or "one-meter-six-seven"? Or are they not that specific...but 10 centimeters is a big difference. Some of them have asked specifically if I'm 1.7 meters tall, to which the answer is not quite.
The students are also preparing for this talent show. It's more than a talent show, really, it's more like a talent week. Instead of classes there's a week's worth of activities including running races, dancing, and reciting poetry. I've been really impressed with how fast the students are learning this dance. The ones here are fifth and sixth graders, but the dance opens with two little first graders (they're sitting on the mat in the picture) doing front walkovers. It's pretty adorable.
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| "And the moon went along with him..." |
Although duty is extremely tiring I'm starting to feel more a part the community here. Reading bedtime stories certainly helps (sometimes when I'm patrolling the hall I avoid walking past my third graders who are at the end of the hall because if they see me walk by they'll all get up and shout "Hello Miss Nan" instead of going to sleep). The way the kitchen staff welcome and feed me is also really heartwarming. We have a hard time communicating much because they only speak the local dialect and not standard Mandarin, but they still welcome me in and make sure that I'm well fed. This week my mealtime task has been to watch over the Hui (Muslim ethnic group) cafeteria instead of the main cafeteria. This is actually really nice because there are fewer students so it's not quite the mad rush of the big cafeteria. This gives me more time to talk to the students--even if just to say hello or good morning--instead of constantly pulling them into lines (although there are still line-cutting students...most of them have the decency to look abashed when I tell them to get in line...some of them, however, just back away and try to wait until I turn my back...needless to say, this doesn't work very well).
I've also been asked to participate in the inter-school talent show in two weeks. At first my principal wanted the four Teach For China fellows to do our own segment, but eventually it was decided that I would sing the song that ten of the local female teachers will be fan dancing to. Although this ups the pressure, it also has given me the opportunity to spend more time with them in a slightly different context. I'm still learning the song, but a lot of them are still learning the dance, and we can all laugh when fans slip to the floor.
Here's the song that I'll be singing, 春江花月夜 (literally Spring River Flower Moon Night, or A Moonlit Night On The Spring River).
It took them awhile to find me a suitable costume because Chinese women tend to be smaller and shorter than me. I'm used to my height being pretty unremarkable, but my local teachers keep commenting on how tall I am. A few of them asked exactly how tall I am and I didn't know how to answer in meters. I have since figured out the conversion, but I'm still not sure how to say it. I did learn when buying bedding, however, that they don't say "one-point-two meters" but "one-meter-two". But do I say "one-meter-sixty-seven" or "one-meter-six-seven"? Or are they not that specific...but 10 centimeters is a big difference. Some of them have asked specifically if I'm 1.7 meters tall, to which the answer is not quite.
The students are also preparing for this talent show. It's more than a talent show, really, it's more like a talent week. Instead of classes there's a week's worth of activities including running races, dancing, and reciting poetry. I've been really impressed with how fast the students are learning this dance. The ones here are fifth and sixth graders, but the dance opens with two little first graders (they're sitting on the mat in the picture) doing front walkovers. It's pretty adorable.
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| Just a few minutes after the last picture, the clouds to the east turn pink as the sun sets behind us and a group of students practice their dance in the courtyard. |
1.67m is said as 'one-meter-six-seven', at least in standard. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Catherine! :-)
ReplyDelete