My students do these exercises 2 times a day, and they seem to hate it. The first day of class I had no idea what they were and my class said they weren't important so I continued to yell over the loud speaker for 10 mins! The girl walking around is the class monitor, if you don't do the exercises she scolds you until you do them.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Quanzhou
Kristen is here! I am SO happy. We went to Quanzhou, about an 1.5 hour bus ride away. According to the tour book it is heavily influenced by the Muslim population. Somehow I interpreted this as vibrant painted doors with ornate decorations (I'm not sure how my imagination ran so wild) but instead got a smaller more chaotic Xiamen, except Xiamen is cooler.
Significant differences:
1. Cars are more than happy to honk their horns at just about anything, in Xiamen you could be fined.
2. Motor taxis are everywhere and even if you are 2 feet from them will lay on the horn. Motor taxis are not allowed to be in the area I live.
3. Shopping is not outrageously expensive.
4. Kids were smashed into tiny back carts of bikes, it reminded me of how I would think illegal immigrants get past the Mexican border.
5. The increased amount of homeless people.
Now a shortened version of the sites we saw throughout the day, with an added (but FREE) commentary.
1. The mosque reminded me of Roman ruins. It had a massive pillar and an area with smaller less impressive columns.
2. The temple. This place was huge and relatively uncrowded compared to the temple in Xiamen. I was partially disgusted by the extra flair that was added to the temple.
This included:
-the added flood lights to make the temple picture perfect for night.
-the hippie trippy looking buddah placard that had buddah on it and neon lights swirling behind
him.
- the fact that the chanting was mic-ed so that the entire temple could hear it.
- it cost 10 kuai to get in.
Besides that I rather liked the town, even though I wasn't so hot on it initially. Even the bus ride was an adventure. Especially since I couldn't remember how to get home exactly...
Significant differences:
1. Cars are more than happy to honk their horns at just about anything, in Xiamen you could be fined.
2. Motor taxis are everywhere and even if you are 2 feet from them will lay on the horn. Motor taxis are not allowed to be in the area I live.
3. Shopping is not outrageously expensive.
4. Kids were smashed into tiny back carts of bikes, it reminded me of how I would think illegal immigrants get past the Mexican border.
5. The increased amount of homeless people.
Now a shortened version of the sites we saw throughout the day, with an added (but FREE) commentary.
1. The mosque reminded me of Roman ruins. It had a massive pillar and an area with smaller less impressive columns.
2. The temple. This place was huge and relatively uncrowded compared to the temple in Xiamen. I was partially disgusted by the extra flair that was added to the temple.
This included:
-the added flood lights to make the temple picture perfect for night.
-the hippie trippy looking buddah placard that had buddah on it and neon lights swirling behind
him.
- the fact that the chanting was mic-ed so that the entire temple could hear it.
- it cost 10 kuai to get in.
Besides that I rather liked the town, even though I wasn't so hot on it initially. Even the bus ride was an adventure. Especially since I couldn't remember how to get home exactly...
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Weekend so far
On Friday I went to a classical music concert. It was surprising how many instruments I could identify in each piece, it really brings me back to Mr. Cerri (I think only 1 person would understand this reference). The conductor was going crazy, he was power tripping because he kept entering and exiting the stage, I think just to earn more applause. I don't really see the big deal in a coductor, I mean I NEVER looked at the conductor. Well maybe every so often, just so he could signal me when I was supposed to play. But besides that, NEVER.
Anyhow, the venue was tiny, I didn't even know it was an entrance. The room was packed with white lawn chairs, upholstered theater type seats, and those chairs pre-schoolers sit in. I thought they were for the little kids, but they were indeed for adults. Luckily, we had the upholstered seats. During the performance the kids would play with their toy dinosaurs on the floor, or somehow wedge themselves between people for a better view. AND people, don't dress up or turn off their cell phone ringer, even worse is they ANSWERED the phone!
Today I had conversation partner. I decided to invite her to my house this week because her house is so dark I can barely see anything. Once she got here she kept commenting how comfortably I lived, I was kinda embarrassed. It's like I'm this punk kid who doesn't really do much of anything but teach, yet I have an apartment 4 times the size of hers. I kinda regretted inviting her over. Plus she got off at the wrong bus stop so I had to search for her for an hour.
And I went to the fabric market. The fabric market is basically a Jo-Anns worse nightmare. It is a whole building of fabrics, and tailors. You can bring a picture or draw a picture of something and someone will make it. Quality not gauranteed, but still, it's pretty cool.
Then I went to a friends house to watch Music and Lyrics and she made BBQ chicken pizza! I haven't had cheese in a loooong time. It was delicious.
Anyhow, the venue was tiny, I didn't even know it was an entrance. The room was packed with white lawn chairs, upholstered theater type seats, and those chairs pre-schoolers sit in. I thought they were for the little kids, but they were indeed for adults. Luckily, we had the upholstered seats. During the performance the kids would play with their toy dinosaurs on the floor, or somehow wedge themselves between people for a better view. AND people, don't dress up or turn off their cell phone ringer, even worse is they ANSWERED the phone!
Today I had conversation partner. I decided to invite her to my house this week because her house is so dark I can barely see anything. Once she got here she kept commenting how comfortably I lived, I was kinda embarrassed. It's like I'm this punk kid who doesn't really do much of anything but teach, yet I have an apartment 4 times the size of hers. I kinda regretted inviting her over. Plus she got off at the wrong bus stop so I had to search for her for an hour.
And I went to the fabric market. The fabric market is basically a Jo-Anns worse nightmare. It is a whole building of fabrics, and tailors. You can bring a picture or draw a picture of something and someone will make it. Quality not gauranteed, but still, it's pretty cool.
Then I went to a friends house to watch Music and Lyrics and she made BBQ chicken pizza! I haven't had cheese in a loooong time. It was delicious.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Celebrity
Today in class I asked all the kids if they could meet a famous person who would they meet. Then I put them into groups and made each group write down each group members pick for a famous person. I then told them all of the celebrities are in a hot air balloon, but it only has enough power to hold 3 people, so they must throw one person off (weight doesn't matter) to save the rest of the celebrities. Here are some answers I got.
The list:
Tom Cruise
Bill Gates
Tracy McGrady
Mickey Mouse
We would throw off Tom Cruise because he is a bad father to his children.
I can't remember the rest of the lists but here are the answers.
Bruce Lee because he knows kung fu and he won't be hurt.
Yao Ming because he is ugly and heavy.
Some young diver, because he is not old and not as famous as the rest of the people in the balloon.
So I know this game doesn't seem like it has to do with anything. But this weeks unit in the book was to talk about celebrities. This forced the kids to talk about who is famous, and what they are famous for (supposedly, haha). Last week was how to make a milkshake (and we did! but they weren't too tasty), makes me really wonder about these textbooks...
The list:
Tom Cruise
Bill Gates
Tracy McGrady
Mickey Mouse
We would throw off Tom Cruise because he is a bad father to his children.
I can't remember the rest of the lists but here are the answers.
Bruce Lee because he knows kung fu and he won't be hurt.
Yao Ming because he is ugly and heavy.
Some young diver, because he is not old and not as famous as the rest of the people in the balloon.
So I know this game doesn't seem like it has to do with anything. But this weeks unit in the book was to talk about celebrities. This forced the kids to talk about who is famous, and what they are famous for (supposedly, haha). Last week was how to make a milkshake (and we did! but they weren't too tasty), makes me really wonder about these textbooks...
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