Thanksgiving

I am thankful for all my family and friends support this holiday.  Even though I spent it in my apartment with the winding down of a cough and cold - I spoke to everyone on Skype and I was thankful for Skype and all the technology that allows me to feel less isolated.

Next, I am grateful to all my goofy little college coeds that began QQing me (like facebook) at 10 pm the evening before Thanksgiving. I had about 30 ims.  Most are busy this week (the sophomores) performing service to the campus.  Many should be thankful that they did not receive the assignment of a few of these jobs that some of these students had to perform.  Kevin had to repair the squat toilets.  He told me it was disgusting but as the days went on he became used to the smell.  The students have to work for 1 full week - sometimes 14 hours a day - doing some kind of work on campus.  The most dreaded is working and cleaning at the canteens (cafeterias) and cleaning the boys dormitories.  The sophomores work one week this semester and next semester , it is the turn of the freshmen. The photos above are of one of our Friday English discussion group dinner preparations.  Kaylee is a great cook and the girls were a great help to her.

Rita - one of my sophomores had this terrible cold which I had also  and she was trying to keep working at the boys dorm - she said it was horrible.  I have been working with her on her recitation for Sunday's bilingual competition, where I will be a judge.   She is memorizing all of her speeches , as all of the students do each day for their classes.  You will not be able to enter any university in China without having a great ability in memorization.  They do not learn phonics - just memorize huge lists of English words.

I am so tired and sad about sweeping up ladybugs in my apartment.   Hundreds have come in and have gone to the ceiling corners and just sit there - huddled together- until finally one by one they die and drop to the floor.  I have released hundreds to the outdoors.  Some are the unusual color of shiny black with 3-4 bright orange/red spots.  Beautiful.  It has become colder - tomorrow a high of 48 and they crept in here weeks ago.  There also are flies that are still in the apartment.  I spend my evenings chasing them - they are very small and quick and I seem to miss them constantly.  I think I have killed them all, when I fall asleep but inevitably , one begins buzzing around my head at 3 am.  All the windows have been shut for weeks.  Where are they coming from?

Life in the dorm

Yesterday, I went with two of my students - Lee and Kevin, to change my cell phone plan with China Mobile to add wifi on campus.  I have wifi at my apartment but not on campus.  I bicycled on my new(used) bicycle over the rainbow bridge to the other campus from our campus- East.  First I met Lee at the Foreign Languages Building to park and lock my bike.  Then we went to walk to the China Mobile store and realized that I needed my passport.  But as is always true in China - there is a way around this.  Lee said - let's go to my dorm - I can get my card and use that.  Not sure what card he used - perhaps his card for China M.  Well - I was able to see their dorm rooms.  The guys were so excited for me to see their rooms. They were like little kids who so proud of where they lived. Girls are not permitted but I was allowed to after some wrangling with the students who man the front desk. Boys are never permitted in girl's dorms but I guess it was ok to let an old lady visit. 

This is so the opposite of life on US campuses.   Also, because these kids see very few foreigners- if any - especially Americans-  that they go berserk.  I feel like Lady GaGa.  I have had my picture taken with kids everyday.  I am on hundreds of cell phones. They want their picture with me - not just me. People stop me just to say hello.  All the students beg to help me do anything from shopping to buying a bike.  They want to talk with you.  Also , they are very unsophisticated.  They remind of when I used to come up to Hayley's elementary school and the kids, as well as Hayley, would be so excited to see me. That is how they continue to act.  The girls now come up to me and link arms and also hold my hand when we are walking.  The girls all hold hands.  The boys all throw their arms over each others shoulders and neck.  When we are sitting and chatting , the boys all do that .  They also say they like living 6 to a room - all the English and language majors live together - and they would be very lonely if they only had a few roommates.  


The halls - as they are in my classroom building - totally dark.  The lights are only turned on at nightfall. Also - all lights go out in the dorm at 11 pm. Everyone is expected to go to bed. They have 6 students in a room that is perhaps 20' x 12'.  They can just fit 2 adults (and I mean skinny Chinese guys) side by side in the aisle in the middle of the dorm room.  They proudly showed me their rooms - they have no mattress - just a pallet on a piece of wood in a metal frame bunk bed.  A mosquito netting is hung from hooks in the ceiling - tied up each day until nightfall.  

The juxtaposition of opposites in this setting is the laptops on everyone's bed, sophisticated cell phones, a printer, etc.  It is crazy to see.  The guys and girls have to go walk out to separate buildings to take showers - cold water unless the other pay showers are working - and they have large thermal water pitchers to fill with hot water and they use those for washing faces and of course for tea.  They stand in line to fill up their thermoses.

We picked up Kevin at the dorm and he went back with us to the China Mobile store.  Then they wanted to help me find a silicon cover for my keyboard on my Mac laptop.  We went to all the little stores that are owned by small shop owners within the building that houses the 2 largest canteens(cafeterias).  No luck for Apple products.  We were told I need to order online.  It is common to have all these little shops all over a campus.  Not like our campuses with shops only owned by the school.  

Then we went out what is the West Gate of the school - all Chinese campuses are surrounded by high walls and there are police and security at every gate.  I was introduced to 2 young men who have a yogurt smoothie shop in the path/street out the gate.  Set in between all the traditional dumpling shops, is a lime green painted shop - perhaps 25' x 20 that has a small counter and table - are 2 guys who have lived in Australia and came back home to open this small restaurant.  I try to stop by to see these guys once a week if I can and buy a smoothie.  This time they tell me that they have added coffee to their menu.  I am thrilled .  It is ok.  Better than my Folgers crystals which all I have had for 11 weeks. 

These photos I am posting are another photographer's work but I haven't had the nerve to ask my students if I can take photos.  I think many are embarrassed of their rooms and the dorms. I also feel rude if I try to take photos of the squat toilets at my school so I was glad to see a photo on the same blog site. The dorm room here has so much light while my student's rooms are so dark and seem like they are in a pit. The paper on the walls protects the students from the dust that is continually falling off the walls, as is in my apartment.  Construction is very shoddy.

Bicycling with your baby in China.  The back of this bike has a small platform and then a tent like structure to protect the baby from the elements.  No one (almost ) wears a helmet.  No one wears seatbelts.  No bike paths.

Saving Other Turtles from George’s Lonesome Fate

I was approached by a man selling turtles and it was so depressing.  I know how these people struggle to survive but I also know the turtle population is in terrible trouble.  This is probably the best article I have read about the problem and the work people are doing to try and save the most endangered populations.  Saving Other Turtles from George’s Lonesome Fate