Pictures of Daisy for YOU

Hi Michael's Mom :)

I heard you saw my blog so I figured I would dedicate a post to your son.


He is funny and cute :)


but you may want to watch your makeup stash...

Day 7: Learning to Create a new way

May 7 Afternoon:
After eating I decided to go out on the "balcony" since the lunch room we were in is on the 3rd floor. It is a pretty view over campus so I people watched (as usual), and photo journaled what I saw (as usual). There was a couple holding hands, girls holding hands, girls with umbrellas (it's very popular to have an umbrella during the sunshine. I have noticed a stark difference between skin hues of people who work outside constantly and those who are students or work indoors. I don't think it's a fade to be tan here as it is among wealthier white Americans). People riding bikes. Maintenance workers. Towels hanging out of dorms.

I then went to the bathroom but realized I had forgotten wipes, I guess that I figure it's not that bad to do a little dance and move on...plus many bathrooms do not soap so if I don't need to wipe then I don't have to worry about being sanitary. To some it is gross but it's not that big of a deal or me. I save my tissue for 'other' times...if you catch my...drift....but hopefully not...hahaha

After lunch we were taken to a class to create art out of a type of play dough clay. The ones we had were brightly colored and were given the option to create from books or imagination, we did a little of both. Most of us worked with a TNU student. My partner and I made a tomato from the book. Then I told her that I'd make her something if she makes me something. I knew I was going to make her a daisy...sort of...I grabbed some hot pink, green and yellow clay. It was very hard to roll, as it came in pretty solid blocks. I asked Milah for the advanced book and she told me it was too hard to do...but I just wanted to see how they created some of the flowers. I think mine turned out nicely and I kind of wanted to keep it but also wanted to give it away. My partner, Helen is her English name (some students have them and some don't). She was very quiet and we did not talk much, more so concentrated on our masterpieces. I was amazed at the talent among our group. Lakia made a cute hotdog, very detailed. Everyone was amazed at the dragon that looked like Mushu from Disney's inaccurate version of Mulan. Bailey and her partner made the cutest teddy bear and Sunny and her friend made blue and pink penguins. Jia made a bubble bee on a sunflower with her peer. It was fun. They were heated and given back to us while we took Chinese handwriting (calligraphy) from a teacher at the school. Helen made me a cute beeish looking figurine. The calligraphy teacher showed us how to write on paper and also used a projection screen to show us his skills. We tried...a girl next to me helped me and explained what they meant to me. I made her a sign in the end that said thank you and made the characters for friends :)
after class we headed home after decided if we were going to go karaoke or not...everyone was too tired I think...

Day 7: TNU Primary Edu Dept.

May 7, 2010

One thing that is hard to convey to anyone not here is the different smells. You can take an image and capture part of the visual experience, also the audio with video; however, we cannot bottle and preserve all of the different smells. Driving past the garbage dump to the university again today did not bother me as much but it is still a potent pungent smell that engulfs my inner nasal cavities, lingering long enough to cause me to breath through my mouth only.

It is difficult for students in China to study abroad because there are so many trying to travel to the US/UK/Australia, and elsewhere.

Today is the Primary Education Department at Tianjin Normal University. We were late and classes had begun but were taken to a class to wait and found students waiting there. The class was taught in English by a Chinese teacher. Her English was fairly good to our standards. She appeared a little strict and the rest of the class was basically just a free-for-all talking with the students. I talked with two female students. They were shy. I took out my laptop once I saw Professor Gant showing them things on his and I decided to show pictures of our campus and of Vincent and I dancing and some of my family. We talked a little and asked/answered questions to each other. Class ended and we exchanged emails and photos.

The next class came in and it became apparent that we would be observing and participating in learning from her students, and then conversing. I was at a table with Amanda, Milah and 3 guys named David Zhang, Ivan and Augusting. I talked with David the most but we all had mostly a group conversation. David's right eye was mostly closed but I did not want to ask him about it, but now I wish I would have because I tried not to stare at it when conversing. The teacher told us to only talk about the theme of tourism and traveling...but they wanted to talk about other things. We mainly talked about China and names and etc but then she interrupted us, as Augustine (he spells it Augusting though, but maybe just in his email, I am not sure...) says she likes to do. She was interesting. She then had two girls perform a play dialogue they had practiced before. She said they usually just read or memorize but today was special for us...so they did a short skit. It was cute and had a moral attached to it about spending more time with your children instead of working all of the time. They then asked the class questions and we were invited to participate as well. After awhile the teacher kind of looked annoyed that it was taking this long and more or less told her they were done...
Then a few different groups presented places around the world, including Tianjin, The Great Wall (indirectly), London? I forget the names of some of the sites. One girl was presenting a wall in Europe and got on a tangent of TGW and basically said it was the greatest wall and better (for my lack of better terminology) than the European wall she was presenting...and then got into tips about the GW. After awhile the teacher hurried her up. David's group was supposed to present Italy and they had notes and pictures about it but the teacher skipped to another group. Milah and Amanda told them about Detroit and a lot of places to see there. The teacher kept telling them to ask us about Chicago...where we were from...and everyone would bust into giggling spurts until after about a 7th time she found out we were from Ann Arbor... We then talked again and Augusting wanted to know what American books said about China but by then the teacher cut us off again...so I told him we'd get in touch to talk more.

Then we played a game of telephone...tragic hahaha we staggered her students with us and played 3 or 4 games...the sentences of about 20 words were chopped dramatically down to about 2 or 5 and usually had nothing to do with the first sentence. After taking more pictures and exchanging emails we left the building for lunch. I had Caryn help me with lunch...she ordered me fried rice with just shrimp, instead of the entire seafood fried rice...but I was handed a huge plate of white rice and little shrimp sprinkled on it...I figured I would never order a meal and have it be what I ordered...but I was still hopeful. It was good, just kind of plain so Lou let me taste some of his seafood fried rice. I also ordered a smoothie and it came back as a green tea smoothie with strawberry ice cream on top in the form of pink soft serve. I am not a fan of bitter and the crushed ice tea was soo bitter but it was tolerable if I mixed the ice cream in with a spoonful of green team smoothie.

Things I have yet to notice:

coins on the ground

tampons

Day 6: Lights Out!

May 6 still:

We ended the class, exchanged numbers/emails, hugged, thanked, and took photos. We recollected in the lobby area and left campus for the International campus in which we are staying most of the time. Sunny and I went to the dining room after chaning clothes and no one was there so we went up to the 8th floor where everyone else is staying to talk about dinner plans...
We decided to split up for dinner, half of the group ordered pizza, while Nevena, Bailey, Chaz, Sunny, Lou and I went to dinner at the dumpling house across from our "hotel dorm." I was tired and wore the large t-shirt that was given to us. I realized I should have dressed slightly nicer once we entered the restaurant. Chaz dropped his chopsticks on the floor during dinner and tried to ask the waitress for new ones and he put them on the ground to get the message across...but a cook (with a very stern and scary look on his face) came out and handed Chaz a fork and steak knife...the waitress returned with chopsticks but our faces were interesting to see...
We felt like we were "fending for ourselves" because no one was ordering for us...We ordered some different dumplings, I picked a shrimp and zucchini one. We loved the shrimp and pork ones the best though and reordered it 2 more times. Dr. Gant gave us money for dinner, the dumplings are about a dollar a plate...so cheap...but the tea was the kicker and bumped the bill up a lot.

After dinner we walked a bit and went to a bakery and I bought a delicious looking cake with fruit on it for a dollar (and I am sure it would have cost about 5 or so in the US at least). The cakes here are beautiful and so cheap compared to the ones in the US. It had a strawberry, kiwi and peach slices on the top. The supermarket is inside a mall. Many stores you cannot bring bags in but the lockers are free here and you push a button, open pops a locker, you grab the ticket, leave your bag, then scan the ticket when you're finished. I swear the US overcharges for many things. I figured I could carry my cake in but the guard made me leave it at the front of the store and I was just hoping he wasn't hungry. I bought some foods and juggled it out the door because I was not given a bag. We headed back and I bought a McDonald's ice cream for about 30 cents US on the way home when Chaz did.

I asked Taylor to save me a piece of pizza. She did and it wasn't the greatest, plus I was already full...I brought back some dumplings, too. I passed out as soon as we were back and was too full to even eat my cake, plus it looked a little gross by the time I took a picture at home.

Day 6: Round 2/3 of classes

May 6 after lunch:

The weather is beautiful, in my book. We returned to the honor room in the Literature department around 2 to wait to be taken to the next classes. We decided that a few of the groups should switch after an hour instead of being in a class for 2 straight hours and we were divided up into 4 groups this time, our original groups. We were taken to a class on the first floor past the giant mirror near the front of the building (it is giant). I feel so foreign entering these classes and the kids smile, gawk, and laugh, along with perplexed gazes. We decided to start with a stretch and moved all of the tables and chairs to the sides of the room, formed a circle and Jamilah led warmups. We then divided into 3 smaller groups and Sunny, Milah and I facilitated each group, asking questions about dance, health, activities and whatever conversations spawned from there. It is easier to encourage people to talk in smaller groups because they get more of a chance to speak and allow others to assist them with words without feeling mounds of pressure to hurry a statement up in front of an entire class full of peers and strangers.

After about ten minutes we circled back up and then decided to teach Salsa...because it seemed to be working and entertaining. They enjoyed it, especially when I threw in a few 'fancy' moves that 'look cool.' I am thankful that I have dance teaching experience and am the daughter of a teacher/dance teacher otherwise I wouldn't know what the hell I was doing ever. It is really fun. I like feeling like a student and facilitator at the same time. I don't really consider myself as a teacher here, nor any of us, because the angles seem to be more at an equal level rather than us coming in at a teaching angle. I like the cultural exchange and exchange of learning, excitement and entertainment. Sometimes they ask questions and other times I ask questions and sometimes we just perform for each other, giving nonverbal communication.

During the smaller group talks I asked what they did outside of school work. Some play piano, some sing, some like to shop, basketball, table tennis, tennis, swim. It is interesting that the hobbies are as different as the hobbies amongst American students. Some say they are lazy. Some students are very shy while others are fairly vocal, but the majority tended to be more shy at the college level. Cathy was in that class with us, one of my penpals. It was the first experience actually doing something on our own...it was fun but new because many of the students had a decent handle on English but not fluent. A lot of the times there is one or a few people will have talk most of the time and sometimes translate. Most students studying English learn it for multiple years but have no English speakers to practice with, which is why many students are excited to have us at their school for a few days. We have English corner on Tuesday, which is a program led by students that allows students to just go practice English speaking together outside of class.

After the lesson, which took many people awhile to grasp the harder steps, but went well overall, we took pictures and exchanged some emails.

Then off to the next class. The tables were already pushed to the sides and there was a powerpoint on. I guess later on we found out that they had a presentation for us but we didn't realize it and started our lesson. But there was no protest so we did not know. We skipped the isolation warm up and moved into small group conversation. Some similar questions and answers but also some different ones. Sometimes questions are misunderstood or not understood and the answers do not always correspond. It is interesting to struggle together. When we moved into the salsa lesson it is usually difficult how to communicate to get a partner and then divide up the partnership by leads and follows so I have learned to use a visual demonstration of the process. It is fun, I like what we're doing and each day brings a new agenda, despite whatever we thought we were supposed to be doing...

The second class was also fun but we were getting tired. A group of 4 girls held hands and did a 4-way Salsa and wouldn't split up until encouraged to. One told me that they were creative. They were. After we circled up again and discussed what happened and comments. Some said it was sexy. We asked why we dance. Some said for boys, expression, happiness, joy, because it's sexy...haha everything.