11.29.2011
notes
cute little notes from some girls in the aforementioned class. they never participate, and when i try to talk to them, they just sort of look at me. i'm not sure if they can understand english, so to say thank you i just put their notes up to my heart. but they make it their job that i don't walk out of their class empty handed! these are high-quality notes too :)
what you like peates = would you like a present? haha. i think the yes and no check boxes at the bottom are to answer that question?
wow, really cool little note. she's got the name down correctly too!
i somehow managed to get a picture of all the little girls together. the girl on the right is coco (2nd note), the girl in the middle is ling ling (first note), and shame on me i can't remember the girl on the left's name but she gives me notes too. the boy in the back who is creepin' in on the picture is dennis, which i will never forget, because he shares several similarities with the comic book character of the same name. just look at conniving smile!
what you like peates = would you like a present? haha. i think the yes and no check boxes at the bottom are to answer that question?
wow, really cool little note. she's got the name down correctly too!
i somehow managed to get a picture of all the little girls together. the girl on the right is coco (2nd note), the girl in the middle is ling ling (first note), and shame on me i can't remember the girl on the left's name but she gives me notes too. the boy in the back who is creepin' in on the picture is dennis, which i will never forget, because he shares several similarities with the comic book character of the same name. just look at conniving smile!
11.28.2011
my birthday card from oliver
today my student oliver (the only boy in the picture who is not blurry) gave me a birthday card. there must have been some kind of miscommunication. last week i saw ran into him in the hallway and he very asked me when my birthday was in a very urgent manner. turns out that our birthdays are both in february, so i told him that we could have a birthday party together, haha. he said that he would give me a birthday present on the last day of class. i was like alright! today when i came into class he gave me this birthday card so i was a little confused. the other students asked him what it was and he was like, "IT'S TEACHER'S BIRTHDAY CARD." then another little boy was telling me that today was the last class so i was REALLY confused. i thought maybe that's why oliver had given me the card today and i was so sad!! however, after trying to talk to their teacher for a minute, it seems that the boy had misinformed me, and it was just a coincidence that oliver had given me the card already.
so the card is great. not only is it 3 months early but it also says happy birthday miss MURCH on it. lol. he gets an A for effort.
his class is literally insane. they are one of my smallest classes, but it feels like there's about 100 kids in there. i don't even bother getting angry at them because it's not going to do anything. i just make them recite their english book for a few minutes and then ask them if they're ready to be quiet. they LOVE me though. i think out of all of my classes i have some of my biggest fans in this class. tons of cute little notes and little gifts. i think they're like the neglected class, no one wants them but me! my private student amy is also in this class, which is probably why she can't speak english- as a whole their english level is the lowest of the low. i like the kids individually, but together they single handedly win my worst class ever.
i really have a soft spot for them though. 2 weeks ago i had a bad cold and i told all my classes that i was sick to try to get them to be on their best behavior. this class was my only class that genuinely made a concerted effort to be good. after i told them, i could hear them telling each other in chinese, "teacher is sick, teacher is sick!" as my friend said, they gave me a 'free pass'. they were AWESOME that day- fun, on the ball, and focused. they were total crap again the following week but oh well. we did letter writing in class (i'm answering all of them!) and oliver's letter was like "teacher, you said you were sick last week, are you okay now??" aww hahah.
my only saving grace from this class is this boy. you may remember him from my cabbage post. he is so calm, cool and collected, i'm not really sure how he puts up with his classmates. he sits in the front so he can see my exasperation up close. he'll be like, "teacher, they're being loud again". i'm like, "i know, why are they doing this?" him- "i don't know, they're crazy. tell them to be quiet." me- "yeah okay you're right, HEY KIDS SHUT UP!!!"
11.26.2011
my favorite class
i've decided that out of all the classes i've had, this one has been my favorite. i think the best way to describe them is as 'focused energy'. instead of expending their energy on interrupting class, they throw all of it into making every activity we do super exciting and fun. the kids in this class are crazy but at the same time they also know how to wind down, switch gears, and listen when necessary. i usually start class by asking a question, and they are the only class that comes up with so many answers that i am eventually forced to move on, even though i still have 5 kids with their hands raised. it also doesn't hurt that this is my second semester with them, they are in my favorite school and i love their chinese teacher. she's super friendly and last week she gave me an apple! haha.
this is JOHNSON. this kid cracks me up and his name cracks me up as well because to me johnson seems like such a good western name. like, i'm too good for first names, i'm going to make a last name my first name. he also told me the english names of all of his family members (which i can't remember now) and they all had good names too. i don't quite understand his family situation though because he told me that he has a new zealand passport. i think he is the best at throwing all of his little kid energy into english and just making it silly and fun. one class i remember him and some other boys having a little verbal battle about all the things they would do to each others' heads (albeit a slow verbal battle as they had to wait for me to call on them again). maybe that is horrible, but it was pretty funny, and they were using some good words. 2 weeks ago i had a really bad cold so i told the students that i wasn't feeling well that day to get them to simmer down a little. after class, he came up to me and was like 'teacher i'll tell you a story to make you feel better'. i didn't really understand his story at all, which was probably because i was trying to listen to him and deal with numerous other children at the same time, but all the same it was a cute and i told him that his story was the bomb.
other characters from the class-
my bff in china. her english name is lucky. i have received enough fruit and drawings from lucky for a lifetime. it's a shame that her english level is so low, i think we would have had a lot of things to tell each other. i am happy for her though because last year she did not raise her hand to speak once, and this year she has spoken out several times. her mom is one of the english teachers at school.
the 2 cutest little boys i have ever seen in my life. they are like half the size of their other classmates. the boy on the left is so quiet, and the boy on the right usually only participates when we are choosing team names, lol. they are both always smiling.
a good pair. the boy on the left will dance on command at any given time (whether there is music or not is not an issue) and the other boy is one of my very active participants. he is one of the boys who likes to have verbal battles with johnson. this picture is from last semester after they danced to taylor swift i think, haha.
on the very last day of the semester last year this boy gave me a hard-boiled egg that said 'i like you' written in pencil on it, so he is and always will be a super star in my book. my flight was right after school, so that egg made it all the way to vietnam! i love when the kids smile so hard that you can't see their eyes.
the child on the left is a girl, although she looks like a little boy. i have several students whose gender is unidentifiable from their appearance. all the kids are always telling me that she is a girl and i'm like i know, i know!! i think the boys have officially adopted her as one of their own though- i remember last year i was asking some of the kids who their best friends were and several of the boys named this girl. she is a very, very nice little girl and tries very hard.
this boy is a good kid too. last class i showed them the justin bieber music video for 'never say never' because the setting is in china and he mouthed all of the words to the song (although i think he was just moving his mouth up and down, haha). he told me that he loved justin bieber.
this picture has a lot of my favorites. i put it up though because of the girl in the pink dress all the way on the left. you can even tell from the picture, she is soooo shy. i really like her though because she fights it so hard- she always participates and even plays in the noisy games. when she speaks, i can just barely hear her, but her english is definitely there. i think she is shy, but also confident in her abilities.
the boy in the blue and yellow, george, is also a favorite. he is super active. one time during a lull he asked me what he could be doing, haha. that is definitely the first and only time i have gotten that question here. he sits next to lucky this year, so he also started giving me little treats. what a good influence she is!
there are several other kids i really like in this class too, but i don't really have their pictures :(
i hope for whatever i do in the future, it can also involve this kind of controlled insanity.
this is JOHNSON. this kid cracks me up and his name cracks me up as well because to me johnson seems like such a good western name. like, i'm too good for first names, i'm going to make a last name my first name. he also told me the english names of all of his family members (which i can't remember now) and they all had good names too. i don't quite understand his family situation though because he told me that he has a new zealand passport. i think he is the best at throwing all of his little kid energy into english and just making it silly and fun. one class i remember him and some other boys having a little verbal battle about all the things they would do to each others' heads (albeit a slow verbal battle as they had to wait for me to call on them again). maybe that is horrible, but it was pretty funny, and they were using some good words. 2 weeks ago i had a really bad cold so i told the students that i wasn't feeling well that day to get them to simmer down a little. after class, he came up to me and was like 'teacher i'll tell you a story to make you feel better'. i didn't really understand his story at all, which was probably because i was trying to listen to him and deal with numerous other children at the same time, but all the same it was a cute and i told him that his story was the bomb.
other characters from the class-
my bff in china. her english name is lucky. i have received enough fruit and drawings from lucky for a lifetime. it's a shame that her english level is so low, i think we would have had a lot of things to tell each other. i am happy for her though because last year she did not raise her hand to speak once, and this year she has spoken out several times. her mom is one of the english teachers at school.
the 2 cutest little boys i have ever seen in my life. they are like half the size of their other classmates. the boy on the left is so quiet, and the boy on the right usually only participates when we are choosing team names, lol. they are both always smiling.
a good pair. the boy on the left will dance on command at any given time (whether there is music or not is not an issue) and the other boy is one of my very active participants. he is one of the boys who likes to have verbal battles with johnson. this picture is from last semester after they danced to taylor swift i think, haha.
on the very last day of the semester last year this boy gave me a hard-boiled egg that said 'i like you' written in pencil on it, so he is and always will be a super star in my book. my flight was right after school, so that egg made it all the way to vietnam! i love when the kids smile so hard that you can't see their eyes.
the child on the left is a girl, although she looks like a little boy. i have several students whose gender is unidentifiable from their appearance. all the kids are always telling me that she is a girl and i'm like i know, i know!! i think the boys have officially adopted her as one of their own though- i remember last year i was asking some of the kids who their best friends were and several of the boys named this girl. she is a very, very nice little girl and tries very hard.
this boy is a good kid too. last class i showed them the justin bieber music video for 'never say never' because the setting is in china and he mouthed all of the words to the song (although i think he was just moving his mouth up and down, haha). he told me that he loved justin bieber.
this picture has a lot of my favorites. i put it up though because of the girl in the pink dress all the way on the left. you can even tell from the picture, she is soooo shy. i really like her though because she fights it so hard- she always participates and even plays in the noisy games. when she speaks, i can just barely hear her, but her english is definitely there. i think she is shy, but also confident in her abilities.the boy in the blue and yellow, george, is also a favorite. he is super active. one time during a lull he asked me what he could be doing, haha. that is definitely the first and only time i have gotten that question here. he sits next to lucky this year, so he also started giving me little treats. what a good influence she is!
there are several other kids i really like in this class too, but i don't really have their pictures :(
i hope for whatever i do in the future, it can also involve this kind of controlled insanity.
broken arm
oh my god, one of my students broke his arm in my class 2 weeks ago. i feel like the worst person ever. i remember him and another boy running into each other during a game and they both came off crying but i did not realize the severity of this boy's injury. i've seen kids bounce back from such ridiculous bodily encounters that this one looked like nothing more than a bump or a bruise. however, it was dangerous enough for me to say that the game was over, at which point the boy who didn't break his arm immediately stopped crying and said he was okay and that we should continue the game. pshh... the boy who broke his arm sits all the way in the back so i guess i didn't check on his condition well enough. there have been so many times where i have shut down class to console one crying kid to no avail, but of course, the one time i don't do it, the kid has a broken arm. how terrible!
last friday i saw him in the hallway and i noticed that his arm was not in his jacket sleeve so i asked him where his arm was. he opened his jacket and revealed his broken arm. i was like oh no! i still did not realize how had had broken it though. class was really chill that day (they were writing me a letter) so i went to the back and asked him how he broke his arm. he asked me if he could tell me in chinese. i was like okay. at first i misunderstood and thought he had broken it outside playing. then he was like no, no, no, remember last week the boy and i got hurt? i was like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! i think my reaction scared him a little, he was like it's okay teacher, it's okay!! he is usually a naughty little boy, but now i have a super soft spot in my heart for him. i don't think he would have even told me how he broke his arm if i hadn't asked him! i totally would have guilt tripped the teacher. he just sat there nice and quietly writing his letter to me. sigh...
last friday i saw him in the hallway and i noticed that his arm was not in his jacket sleeve so i asked him where his arm was. he opened his jacket and revealed his broken arm. i was like oh no! i still did not realize how had had broken it though. class was really chill that day (they were writing me a letter) so i went to the back and asked him how he broke his arm. he asked me if he could tell me in chinese. i was like okay. at first i misunderstood and thought he had broken it outside playing. then he was like no, no, no, remember last week the boy and i got hurt? i was like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! i think my reaction scared him a little, he was like it's okay teacher, it's okay!! he is usually a naughty little boy, but now i have a super soft spot in my heart for him. i don't think he would have even told me how he broke his arm if i hadn't asked him! i totally would have guilt tripped the teacher. he just sat there nice and quietly writing his letter to me. sigh...
11.24.2011
happy thanksgiving!
happy thanksgiving from my students!
this drawing really isn't thanksgiving'ish at all except for the large bird on the plate. this is what happens when you mix anime and american holidays together
per jeremy's suggestion, i showed my students the oldest primary school trick in the book- the handprint turkey. having them each make their own would have been a logistical disaster so i just showed them on the chalkboard how to do it and left it at that. one little girl made her own though! it's like 50 times better than the one i made.
so that pretty much has been my thanksgiving in china. my thanksgiving ppt lesson included one slide on each: family dinner, turkey, pie, pilgrims and indians, handprint turkeys, the macy's day parade, football and of course, a picture of spongebob saying happy thanksgiving (i use him for every holiday haha). i think it was a good array of material, but man, i had to dumb down my pilgrims and indians slide so much that i felt like it was insulting. the slide was a picture of an indian and a pilgrim holding a turkey together (which they did not actually have on the first thanksgiving). after explaining who the pilgrims and indians were, my explanation of the first thanksgiving went something like this- 'before, the pilgrims and indians were not friends. they did not like each other. they fought (hit clenched fists together to indicate fighting until my student's faces reveal understanding). then, one day, they had a big dinner together. they were very happy. this is why thanksgiving is so important.' oh my god...hahah
tonight i'm going out to one of the few good western restaurants in dalian, so hopefully i can get some turkey. the owner is chinese but he used to live in canada so he is well versed in western cooking. yum yum..
this drawing really isn't thanksgiving'ish at all except for the large bird on the plate. this is what happens when you mix anime and american holidays together
per jeremy's suggestion, i showed my students the oldest primary school trick in the book- the handprint turkey. having them each make their own would have been a logistical disaster so i just showed them on the chalkboard how to do it and left it at that. one little girl made her own though! it's like 50 times better than the one i made.
so that pretty much has been my thanksgiving in china. my thanksgiving ppt lesson included one slide on each: family dinner, turkey, pie, pilgrims and indians, handprint turkeys, the macy's day parade, football and of course, a picture of spongebob saying happy thanksgiving (i use him for every holiday haha). i think it was a good array of material, but man, i had to dumb down my pilgrims and indians slide so much that i felt like it was insulting. the slide was a picture of an indian and a pilgrim holding a turkey together (which they did not actually have on the first thanksgiving). after explaining who the pilgrims and indians were, my explanation of the first thanksgiving went something like this- 'before, the pilgrims and indians were not friends. they did not like each other. they fought (hit clenched fists together to indicate fighting until my student's faces reveal understanding). then, one day, they had a big dinner together. they were very happy. this is why thanksgiving is so important.' oh my god...hahah
tonight i'm going out to one of the few good western restaurants in dalian, so hopefully i can get some turkey. the owner is chinese but he used to live in canada so he is well versed in western cooking. yum yum..
11.22.2011
11.20.2011
loves of my life
did i ever mention that i love my students? maybe this post is a little premature but i have just over a month left here and i already feel the pain of separation. by my estimates i have probably worked with a little less than 2000 kids here in less than a year! how many first year teachers can say that?!? pretty cool...
the faces in the pictures don't have any meaning to anyone except me but they will be engrained in my memory forever. i hope i can at least stay in touch with a few of them to see how they turn out.
this semester i was lucky enough to have both old and new faces. i have 15 new classes and 11 old classes, which i think was a good balance. i have to say that i definitely feel closer with my old classes though.
here are some old faces:
and here are some new faces!
for some of these kids i probably had very little to no effect on them whatsoever (they saw my class merely as a 35 minute break in the day) but for other kids i think my effect has been bigger than i'm probably even aware of. for example, when i met aaron's mother (my little private student), she told me that aaron felt excited about learning english for the first time in my class. i think it all goes back to when i showed them a justin bieber music video haha, but hey, whatever sparks your passion. to be honest, when aaron asked me on QQ to be his teacher, i wasn't exactly sure which student he was, so it just goes to show that i'm not always aware of who is following me. his oral english is improving rapidly now that he is opening his mouth and giving the language a shot.
moving on, this class is literally a teacher's dream. there's at least like 50 of them but they're well behaved, quiet and polite. they're almost too good...maybe they have something up their sleeve...hehe. the boy in the orange stripes has excellllent english but sometimes he uses his skills for strange purposes. last class he ran up to me in my the middle of my lesson and told me that his stomach was uncomfortable and that he needed to go to the WC immediately. i was like, OK, go!! hahah
sometimes i like to get in the pictures too :) nice, nice 6th graders.
what will i do without a classroom full of chinese kids? oh, woe is me!
grammar
i was just reading through one of my previous posts and i want to say please excuse any grammar or spelling mistakes i make on this blog. although zach will tell you that it is because i am forgetting english, the truth is that i am just writing too quickly and not proofreading very well. although, there may be something to zach's claim, on friday night my friend was joking about knowing 5 languages and i told him that he was wulingual, which seemed to make perfect sense. he gave me a strange look and was like ummm, do you mean quinlingual? i was like oh yeah, that too, where the heck did i get wulingual from? and then i remembered that in chinese the word for 5 is 'wu'. wow, that was definitely a strange mistake....!
zombies
to follow up with my last past, zombies are the hot thing in china right now thanks to a popular video game called 'plants vs. zombies'. this is why they know the word zombie, it's not one of their vocab words :) now i'm not the biggest gamer in the world but i have played this game with my students before and it has got to be one of the most inane games in the world. i got bored after like 30 seconds. the zombies start walking across the grass REALLLYYY slowly while mumbling "braiiiinnnnsss" and then you put out some killer plants and wait for them to die. it's a cute idea, but the strategy is pretty lacking.
this is my awesome new MICHAEL JACKSON zombie sticker. i always let my private students pick a sticker after class, and last week my student my student whipped out this awesome sheet of plants vs. zombie stickers and told me to pick one. she put my stickers to shame! when i show the 'thriller' music video in class i always make sure to make the connection for them because they have no idea that this is michael jackson. i'm like look, they have the same red jacket and pants! the kids looooove the thriller music video (i just show them the scary part where the zombies come to life and then they all dance together). they told me that in the video game his name is just 'the king of the dance'.
if only all english words had as much interest behind them as the word 'zombie'....then all my students would be fluent for sure
this is my awesome new MICHAEL JACKSON zombie sticker. i always let my private students pick a sticker after class, and last week my student my student whipped out this awesome sheet of plants vs. zombie stickers and told me to pick one. she put my stickers to shame! when i show the 'thriller' music video in class i always make sure to make the connection for them because they have no idea that this is michael jackson. i'm like look, they have the same red jacket and pants! the kids looooove the thriller music video (i just show them the scary part where the zombies come to life and then they all dance together). they told me that in the video game his name is just 'the king of the dance'.
if only all english words had as much interest behind them as the word 'zombie'....then all my students would be fluent for sure
new chinese holidays
in combination with the upcoming holidays and the fact that the word 'invent' is a vocabulary word in the 4th grade english book, i decided to ask my students, "if you could invent a holiday, what would it be?" so, if chinese children had their say, this it what we would have. the numbers next to the names represent the number of votes each holiday received as being the best holiday. as you can see, 'play day' was pretty popular. that poor kid who came up with 'restaurant day' though, he didn't even get a pity vote from a friend!!! i thought it was pretty practical holiday :)
this holiday tops the list. i can't think of any other way i'd want to spend a day off from work.
this holiday tops the list. i can't think of any other way i'd want to spend a day off from work.
phoenix
i guess i have to take back everything that i said in my previous post about this hair clip. well, maybe that is an exaggeration but there's always more to things than first meets the eye. the mom told me today that the hair clip was designed in the likeness of a 'fenghuang' which explains the crazy design and color scheme. in english we translate 'fenghuang' as 'phoenix'.
here is a picture of a fenghuang below. actually really similar, huh? i learned before that the phoenix is the female counterpart to the dragon in chinese mythological thinking so i was quickly able to understand the meaning of the hair clip (after spending like 20 minutes trying to figure out what a fenghuang is. the mom is pretty young but she really sucks with computers haha). they confused me a little though because they said that either feng or huang represents the female phoenix and the other one represents the male phoenix. i guess it's an androgynous female.
so, new learnings, but this hair clip still remains the most chinese thing i own, hands down! i like it even more now that i know the meaning. i love the combination of old chinese ideas and modern chinese style. i hope it doesn't fall apart like some of the other crappy chinese things i have bought here.
here is a picture of a fenghuang below. actually really similar, huh? i learned before that the phoenix is the female counterpart to the dragon in chinese mythological thinking so i was quickly able to understand the meaning of the hair clip (after spending like 20 minutes trying to figure out what a fenghuang is. the mom is pretty young but she really sucks with computers haha). they confused me a little though because they said that either feng or huang represents the female phoenix and the other one represents the male phoenix. i guess it's an androgynous female.
so, new learnings, but this hair clip still remains the most chinese thing i own, hands down! i like it even more now that i know the meaning. i love the combination of old chinese ideas and modern chinese style. i hope it doesn't fall apart like some of the other crappy chinese things i have bought here.
11.18.2011
sick in china
it's been a long week. for the first time, i got reallyyy sick here. my symptoms started on sunday night but i didn't want to miss class on monday so i powered through the day. i was exhausted (i'm not exactly sure how i did it) but i still had to teach my 6th grade private student after school. i really wanted to cancel but i had cancelled our previous class for no reason (i teach him at 9am on saturdays UGH) so i decided to power through again and then pass out afterwards. he's a really nice kid and very curious about many things so he's easy to teach even though his english is not super great. if all else fails, we just talk about justin bieber, his new favorite singer.
however, as our class went on, i went from feeling like i had a bad cold to really queasy. i usually eat dinner with this family on monday nights but i let the mom know right away that i would have to go home afterwards because i didn't feel well. she tried to make me drink some chinese medicine but i knew that i was going to throw up if i drank it so i refused. finally, our lesson ended and i went to say good bye to the mom in the kitchen. she was cooking what smelled like 6 different dishes at once, which made me feel even more queasy. she said she would take me home, and i was too tired to argue. after we left the apartment and started walking down stairs, everything hit me at once. i yakked all over the stairs. i don't think the mom had realized the severity of my reported illness and froze behind me. i was so embarrassed. she immediately started rubbing my back though and when i was done dragged me back into her apartment. when we came back in i heard her yelling to my student and her husband in chinese "she threw up, she threw up!"
when i came back in she got some pillows and blankets and made me lie down on the couch. i didn't really know what was going on, but i think she took my temperature, gave me some chinese medicine, and made sure i was okay. it was definitely embarrassing, but it was nice to have a mom away from home and not have to be all sick on my own. i rested there for a while and she said i could sleep at her house that night, but being the american that i am i wanted to get home and be in my own bed. she gave me some more chinese meds and we left again. on the way back down the stairs, i really thought i was going to throw up again, it took my strongest mental concentration and will power not to. i knew i would be stuck at her house for good if that happened! we got back to my place and she brought me upstairs to my apartment. i knew she was probably going to be a chinese mom and mess around in my apartment for a bit so i just went to my bed and buried my head under the covers. finally she roused me and gave me some tea, and i also noticed that she had tidied my apartment a little. she explained how to take the chinese meds, tucked me in, and that was that! i am ever so grateful to her. i really should have listened to my body and not taught that day....lesson learned.
so anyhow, it's been a hard week of recovery, but at the end of the day my students always know how to make me feel good even when i don't!
however, as our class went on, i went from feeling like i had a bad cold to really queasy. i usually eat dinner with this family on monday nights but i let the mom know right away that i would have to go home afterwards because i didn't feel well. she tried to make me drink some chinese medicine but i knew that i was going to throw up if i drank it so i refused. finally, our lesson ended and i went to say good bye to the mom in the kitchen. she was cooking what smelled like 6 different dishes at once, which made me feel even more queasy. she said she would take me home, and i was too tired to argue. after we left the apartment and started walking down stairs, everything hit me at once. i yakked all over the stairs. i don't think the mom had realized the severity of my reported illness and froze behind me. i was so embarrassed. she immediately started rubbing my back though and when i was done dragged me back into her apartment. when we came back in i heard her yelling to my student and her husband in chinese "she threw up, she threw up!"
when i came back in she got some pillows and blankets and made me lie down on the couch. i didn't really know what was going on, but i think she took my temperature, gave me some chinese medicine, and made sure i was okay. it was definitely embarrassing, but it was nice to have a mom away from home and not have to be all sick on my own. i rested there for a while and she said i could sleep at her house that night, but being the american that i am i wanted to get home and be in my own bed. she gave me some more chinese meds and we left again. on the way back down the stairs, i really thought i was going to throw up again, it took my strongest mental concentration and will power not to. i knew i would be stuck at her house for good if that happened! we got back to my place and she brought me upstairs to my apartment. i knew she was probably going to be a chinese mom and mess around in my apartment for a bit so i just went to my bed and buried my head under the covers. finally she roused me and gave me some tea, and i also noticed that she had tidied my apartment a little. she explained how to take the chinese meds, tucked me in, and that was that! i am ever so grateful to her. i really should have listened to my body and not taught that day....lesson learned.so anyhow, it's been a hard week of recovery, but at the end of the day my students always know how to make me feel good even when i don't!
11.16.2011
hair clip
this is a hair clip given to me by the mom in the previous post. it is probably the most chinese thing i own now, besides my new vest :) clearly there's a lot going on with it- the excessive number of fake jewels, the excessive colors...basically it is just excessive. i don't think i would have ever thought to buy it for myself (and probably still would never think to hehe), but now that i have it i can appreciate its subjective beauty. i guess the kindness in which it was given also doesn't hurt. i still can't understand how this mom is so nice. definitely bringing some of these learnings back to the states..
11.15.2011
my student and her family
finally got some pictures of my student and her family. this is the same mom who would always clean my entire apartment before i decided that we should switch the lessons to her house so she wouldn't have to do that anymore. now they always invite me to eat with them, they just won't stop being so nice. this picture of the mom and i is a little awkward because it is a picture of a picture- they printed it out for me :) now it's up on my refrigerator. you can see their 2 fish tanks in the background (they have to many pets for the size of their apartment!), the chili peppers strung from the wall, and our post-dinner tea glasses on the table.
here is what a meal looks like at their house. SO MUCH FOOD! i really don't think they could normally eat like this every night. someone told me that in order to show hospitality and friendship the chinese will go all out on meals. starting from the top left hand corner and going around clockwise, they had chicken neck, seafood and egg soup, celery, string beans with beef, sweet and sour fish, tofu, cucumbers and of course, rice. they also gave me a really strange tasting duck egg to try. the yolk had a very ammonia'ish flavor. when i was trying to describe my perception of it to them, i didn't know how to say yolk so i wanted to call it the center of the egg, but i think the way i said 'center' is the colloquial term used for 'city center', so they were giggling. oh well...i would probably laugh too if a chinese person referred to an egg's yolk as its city center!
the dad cooks all of the food for the house, because apparently he is a better cook than the wife. i told them that this cooking ability issue was the same case with my boyfriend and i, and the daughter was delighted to hear that we were the same as her parents, haha. maybe if zach comes to dalian he and the husband can share sob stories about how incompetent their significant others are :) they seem like a pretty happy couple, although i guess you never really know. i have heard that many chinese marriages are born out of convenience and practicality rather than love, but on the surface at least they seem to defy that stereotype.
they were playing simon and garfunkel one time i was there, so i brought my computer over to their house last time and put a bunch of my music on a usb so they could try it out. now they will rocking out to the beatles, bob dylan, stevie wonder, and the mamas and the papas. i think i'll give them miles davis too if i can remember. i am positive about most things in china but i really don't like the music here (i'm not the only one, another foreigner once described it as 'primitive'), but they just happened to have some CDs of a chinese singer i heard on TV one time that i liked. this singer is sort of like the susan boyle of china- she is unattractive, overweight, but has an amazing voice that makes up for the first 2 super important qualities :) i knew there was a reason i liked these people!
here's my little student, amy. amy is a very pretty girl but photographs poorly. her english is dismal and still continues to be dismal even after working with her for several weeks, but i have confidence that she just needs to get over this first language hump and then she'll improve. right now we are still at the basics- months, days of the week, colors, etc. i do have to say that she has made major improvements in those areas after i saw that art was her thing and could be used to her learning advantage. we made little flash cards with her own pictures which helps her remember the vocabulary. to all chinese people's credit though, our naming system for the months and days of the week is about 100 times as hard as the chinese naming system- january translates to '1 month', february translates to '2 month', march translates to '3 month'....i think you get the picture. it's the same with the days of the week. who said that chinese was the hardest language in the world? :)-
here is a little hat that amy made for me. she is so talented! i also saw some of her artwork in room which i'd say was at least on a high school level. she had done a shadow study on several objects and shapes and the different shades of gray was very well rendered. i told her parents that she should be an architect!
despite all these great things about them, there are some culture differences that can make things a little awkward. the language barrier doesn't help either. 2 saturdays ago i was at their house for our 11am lesson and i was feeling pretty tired. the night before was my friend's birthday party so i had stayed out quite late and i had woken up around 7:30 for my 9am lesson at my house (i needed to clean and make myself presentable, ugh). after finishing the lesson they invited me to eat lunch with them, which was cool, and then the mom and i finished watching harry potter 7 pt. 2 because we had watched half of it a few days before. afterwards we talked about the movie as best as i could, and then somehow switched to talking about health and swimming. this somehow led to talking about massage, and the mom proceeded to give me a wonderful chair massage! man, she's always so nice to me, but i felt really uncomfortable about the whole thing and didn't return the massage. i'm going to take her out to get a real massage sometime next week though. okay this is another one of my convoluted stories, now i will get to the point.
the daughter and the father eventually left to go get some groceries and i was left alone with the mom for a while. at this point, i was honestly fatiguing- it was about 4 or 5 pm, i was running on like 3 hours of sleep, had already taught for 3 hours that day, and was attempting to listen to and speak a language that i am not that well versed in. after chatting for a while, i told the mom that i was very tired and needed to go home soon. she absolutely would not have this. she said that i could take a nap in her and her husband's bed (!) and wake up for dinner time. i think this is fairly common in china. i told her that it was very nice of her but that i really couldn't do it. this is where her insistence went beyond all reason in my mind. in america, i think most people would understand that i needed to go home and rest, especially after repeating it twice. the mom was aware of all of the points that i listed above. but in china, sometimes it feels like other people think they know what's better for you than you do, and will be really pushy with you. i also think it's a politeness thing- the chinese seem to have less hesitation about arguing back and forth about who will pay the bill, who will sit down in the empty seat on the bus (i've seen this fight go on so long between 2 old people that it became bizarre), etc. she may have thought that i was just being polite and we were playing this little game before i finally said 'okay'. however, i was not playing, and felt extremely uncomfortable, almost as if i was being held hostage. at first i was like crap i guess i'm going to have to go along with this...but then from somewhere deep inside, a new hardened victoria emerged. i explained to her that we were having a culture difference and that in america we have different habits when visiting friends. this led her to think i was speaking about solely about the bed situation, and she went on to insinuate some things that i didn't want to think about. i tried my best to explain that it was more than just that, but i had trouble because i didn't want to hurt her feelings. finally, she repeated culture difference to herself, and i think she realized that she was just not going to be able to understand where i was coming from, just as i didn't really understand where she was coming from either.
the father and daughter returned to the house soon thereafter, along with a family friend and her daughter. they had a ton of groceries with them. i was like oh great, the WHOLE gang is here now. i felt really terrible, so i played with the new little girl and amy for a little bit, but then they seemed to be looking to me to make up a game to play and i was all gamed out (i play a game in all 26 of my classes each week) so i was like oh my goodness it's time to bid everyone adieu. amy really didn't want me to leave but i had to break her heart and say that i had to. i talked to the father alone for a moment and told him that speaking chinese really makes me tired sometimes, and i think he understood where i was coming from.
putting my shoes on was pretty awkward because everyone was looking at me sadly. they just couldn't handle me leaving empty handed though, so they grabbed an uncooked bag of popcorn and gave it to me. the mom thought for a second and remembered that i didn't have a microwave so they took the bag back from me and popped it in the microwave. while i waited there i didn't know what to do so i told them a "story" about my shoes to ease the tension. then the popcorn was done and they put it in a bag for me. i left, a hot bag of popcorn and all, and took the bus back to home sweet home!
anyhow, moral of the story, it's a blessing and a curse to be so welcome somewhere....! i also teach another boy whose family invites me to dinner after every lesson. so 2nd moral of the story, if you do private teaching every night in china you will never have to cook :)
here is what a meal looks like at their house. SO MUCH FOOD! i really don't think they could normally eat like this every night. someone told me that in order to show hospitality and friendship the chinese will go all out on meals. starting from the top left hand corner and going around clockwise, they had chicken neck, seafood and egg soup, celery, string beans with beef, sweet and sour fish, tofu, cucumbers and of course, rice. they also gave me a really strange tasting duck egg to try. the yolk had a very ammonia'ish flavor. when i was trying to describe my perception of it to them, i didn't know how to say yolk so i wanted to call it the center of the egg, but i think the way i said 'center' is the colloquial term used for 'city center', so they were giggling. oh well...i would probably laugh too if a chinese person referred to an egg's yolk as its city center!
the dad cooks all of the food for the house, because apparently he is a better cook than the wife. i told them that this cooking ability issue was the same case with my boyfriend and i, and the daughter was delighted to hear that we were the same as her parents, haha. maybe if zach comes to dalian he and the husband can share sob stories about how incompetent their significant others are :) they seem like a pretty happy couple, although i guess you never really know. i have heard that many chinese marriages are born out of convenience and practicality rather than love, but on the surface at least they seem to defy that stereotype.they were playing simon and garfunkel one time i was there, so i brought my computer over to their house last time and put a bunch of my music on a usb so they could try it out. now they will rocking out to the beatles, bob dylan, stevie wonder, and the mamas and the papas. i think i'll give them miles davis too if i can remember. i am positive about most things in china but i really don't like the music here (i'm not the only one, another foreigner once described it as 'primitive'), but they just happened to have some CDs of a chinese singer i heard on TV one time that i liked. this singer is sort of like the susan boyle of china- she is unattractive, overweight, but has an amazing voice that makes up for the first 2 super important qualities :) i knew there was a reason i liked these people!
here's my little student, amy. amy is a very pretty girl but photographs poorly. her english is dismal and still continues to be dismal even after working with her for several weeks, but i have confidence that she just needs to get over this first language hump and then she'll improve. right now we are still at the basics- months, days of the week, colors, etc. i do have to say that she has made major improvements in those areas after i saw that art was her thing and could be used to her learning advantage. we made little flash cards with her own pictures which helps her remember the vocabulary. to all chinese people's credit though, our naming system for the months and days of the week is about 100 times as hard as the chinese naming system- january translates to '1 month', february translates to '2 month', march translates to '3 month'....i think you get the picture. it's the same with the days of the week. who said that chinese was the hardest language in the world? :)-
here is a little hat that amy made for me. she is so talented! i also saw some of her artwork in room which i'd say was at least on a high school level. she had done a shadow study on several objects and shapes and the different shades of gray was very well rendered. i told her parents that she should be an architect!
despite all these great things about them, there are some culture differences that can make things a little awkward. the language barrier doesn't help either. 2 saturdays ago i was at their house for our 11am lesson and i was feeling pretty tired. the night before was my friend's birthday party so i had stayed out quite late and i had woken up around 7:30 for my 9am lesson at my house (i needed to clean and make myself presentable, ugh). after finishing the lesson they invited me to eat lunch with them, which was cool, and then the mom and i finished watching harry potter 7 pt. 2 because we had watched half of it a few days before. afterwards we talked about the movie as best as i could, and then somehow switched to talking about health and swimming. this somehow led to talking about massage, and the mom proceeded to give me a wonderful chair massage! man, she's always so nice to me, but i felt really uncomfortable about the whole thing and didn't return the massage. i'm going to take her out to get a real massage sometime next week though. okay this is another one of my convoluted stories, now i will get to the point.the daughter and the father eventually left to go get some groceries and i was left alone with the mom for a while. at this point, i was honestly fatiguing- it was about 4 or 5 pm, i was running on like 3 hours of sleep, had already taught for 3 hours that day, and was attempting to listen to and speak a language that i am not that well versed in. after chatting for a while, i told the mom that i was very tired and needed to go home soon. she absolutely would not have this. she said that i could take a nap in her and her husband's bed (!) and wake up for dinner time. i think this is fairly common in china. i told her that it was very nice of her but that i really couldn't do it. this is where her insistence went beyond all reason in my mind. in america, i think most people would understand that i needed to go home and rest, especially after repeating it twice. the mom was aware of all of the points that i listed above. but in china, sometimes it feels like other people think they know what's better for you than you do, and will be really pushy with you. i also think it's a politeness thing- the chinese seem to have less hesitation about arguing back and forth about who will pay the bill, who will sit down in the empty seat on the bus (i've seen this fight go on so long between 2 old people that it became bizarre), etc. she may have thought that i was just being polite and we were playing this little game before i finally said 'okay'. however, i was not playing, and felt extremely uncomfortable, almost as if i was being held hostage. at first i was like crap i guess i'm going to have to go along with this...but then from somewhere deep inside, a new hardened victoria emerged. i explained to her that we were having a culture difference and that in america we have different habits when visiting friends. this led her to think i was speaking about solely about the bed situation, and she went on to insinuate some things that i didn't want to think about. i tried my best to explain that it was more than just that, but i had trouble because i didn't want to hurt her feelings. finally, she repeated culture difference to herself, and i think she realized that she was just not going to be able to understand where i was coming from, just as i didn't really understand where she was coming from either.
the father and daughter returned to the house soon thereafter, along with a family friend and her daughter. they had a ton of groceries with them. i was like oh great, the WHOLE gang is here now. i felt really terrible, so i played with the new little girl and amy for a little bit, but then they seemed to be looking to me to make up a game to play and i was all gamed out (i play a game in all 26 of my classes each week) so i was like oh my goodness it's time to bid everyone adieu. amy really didn't want me to leave but i had to break her heart and say that i had to. i talked to the father alone for a moment and told him that speaking chinese really makes me tired sometimes, and i think he understood where i was coming from.
putting my shoes on was pretty awkward because everyone was looking at me sadly. they just couldn't handle me leaving empty handed though, so they grabbed an uncooked bag of popcorn and gave it to me. the mom thought for a second and remembered that i didn't have a microwave so they took the bag back from me and popped it in the microwave. while i waited there i didn't know what to do so i told them a "story" about my shoes to ease the tension. then the popcorn was done and they put it in a bag for me. i left, a hot bag of popcorn and all, and took the bus back to home sweet home!
anyhow, moral of the story, it's a blessing and a curse to be so welcome somewhere....! i also teach another boy whose family invites me to dinner after every lesson. so 2nd moral of the story, if you do private teaching every night in china you will never have to cook :)
11.14.2011
11.13.2011
winter swimming
winter sea swimming is a popular pastime of the dalianese people. i don't know how they do it, it is so COLD in that water. they are a hearty, hearty people! there must be something to it though, this guy looks pretty healthy. the 2 colored things in the background that look like buoys are actually people's heads!
this video clip is of a guy warming up before taking the great plunge. i honestly think he was standing there slapping his arms on his chest and back like this for 10 minutes. he was also doing arm circles and other exercises for similar amounts of time. it seemed a little excessive, but i guess he knew what he was doing. look at all the other people swimming- the people here are really concerned about their health!
this video clip is of a guy warming up before taking the great plunge. i honestly think he was standing there slapping his arms on his chest and back like this for 10 minutes. he was also doing arm circles and other exercises for similar amounts of time. it seemed a little excessive, but i guess he knew what he was doing. look at all the other people swimming- the people here are really concerned about their health!
11.12.2011
team names...
the ultimate of all ultimate team names. although, i'm surprised that the next team didn't want to be 'team all people's GRANDfather'. they like to one-up each other.
11.11.2011
jeez
the chinese can organize their children in scales i never thought possible. i took this picture from an upper floor window while my students were doing their daily exercises. i think they were even more organized that unusual though because the dalian education bureau is visiting the school next week and they were preparing for the visit.
chinese poems
last week i had the opportunity to watch some of my 6th grade students read some chinese poems about their love for china. it was a competition to see who could read the poems the best. i wasn't going to go at first because i had chinese class and didn't want to be late but i was happy i stayed- it was really interesting and the kids were happy to see me there. obviously i couldn't fully understand the poems, but the topics included how beautiful china was in the spring, how great the yellow river is, etc. they were all read in this very loud, exaggerated voice that sounded really official and important. i had never heard the chinese language spoken in that way before, so it was a little surprising, especially coming from little kids. here are some of my students waiting for their turn, and one of my students who is apparently really interested in photography and was the official cameraman and videographer for the event.
these are some clips of the best performances that i saw. for the first video, i had been in the room for a while waiting for my students to go because they had to get through all of the 4th and 5th grade classes first. so i was pretty excited when it was finally my 6th graders' turn, and this first reading blew me out of the water- the staging, the unity, the fervor! some of these kids are so shy in my class, but give them a nationalistic poem to read, and all bets are off!! i think i almost died when the boy at the end of the first clip pumps his fist and screams "WO SHI ZHONG GUO REN" which means "I AM CHINESE". wow, he almost fell over! they repeated that several times throughout the reading.
the second clip is of a fantastic little boy reading his solo portion. i've written about him before on my blog. his style of reading and delivery is nothing short of expert- i think it's how the poems are intended to be read. i can't imagine an english poem being read like this...but maybe the style is like the equivalent of our shakespeare? still, i can't imagine little kids in america screaming "I AM AMERICAN" with that kind of intensity. perhaps it is true what i've heard that in american schools we teach our kids to think but in chinese schools they teach their kids how to be chinese citizens!
these are some clips of the best performances that i saw. for the first video, i had been in the room for a while waiting for my students to go because they had to get through all of the 4th and 5th grade classes first. so i was pretty excited when it was finally my 6th graders' turn, and this first reading blew me out of the water- the staging, the unity, the fervor! some of these kids are so shy in my class, but give them a nationalistic poem to read, and all bets are off!! i think i almost died when the boy at the end of the first clip pumps his fist and screams "WO SHI ZHONG GUO REN" which means "I AM CHINESE". wow, he almost fell over! they repeated that several times throughout the reading.
the second clip is of a fantastic little boy reading his solo portion. i've written about him before on my blog. his style of reading and delivery is nothing short of expert- i think it's how the poems are intended to be read. i can't imagine an english poem being read like this...but maybe the style is like the equivalent of our shakespeare? still, i can't imagine little kids in america screaming "I AM AMERICAN" with that kind of intensity. perhaps it is true what i've heard that in american schools we teach our kids to think but in chinese schools they teach their kids how to be chinese citizens!
11.10.2011
i'm watching u
the creepiest bag i have ever seen in my life :) this is my english teacher friend's daughter's bag. she said the girl was like a magician. i dunno, i just get a different feeling from this...hahah
11.08.2011
long live the chinese cabbage
yesterday one of my classes was cancelled in the middle of the day so i went outside for a walk to clear my head and get some fresh air. as i was walking, i noticed that there was an unusually large quantity of cabbage being sold on the street. in fact, like there were more vendors than usual, and they all had it. it seemed a little strange, but i didn't think too much of it at first because i have heard that the chinese love their cabbage. then, as i got into the more residential area, i realized that this was not a fluke. there was literally cabbage everywhere- in the windows, on the doorsteps, on the sidewalks, on the walls. i was pretty dumbfounded. as the sightings continued, i decided to start taking some pictures so i could remember the day the cabbage took over dalian. i still don't fully understand why everyone wants so much of it at once, but apparently it is a winter vegetable here, along with radish. the amount of radish being sold though paled in comparison to the almighty cabbage.
i'm sorry, this is probably going to be way too many pictures of this leafy green for some people, but it was just very impressive. i also chose these few out of like 200 pictures hahah. i was being pretty obnoxious with my camera that day.
this is one the cabbage trucks that i first ran into. i must have seen like 10 of these trucks just in the little area outside of my school alone. it looks like in the first picture they were just selling the them straight from the truck but other vendors were also taking them out and piling them up on the sidewalks. if you'll notice in the second picture, the vendor has a ton of cabbage behind his little presentation pile that he tried to cover with some blankets.
some of them were lined up outside of people's businesses, but these weren't restaurants. i think during the winter the chinese feel they must have cabbage available to them at all times. they do such a nice and neat job of laying them out.
here is some on the wall of a waterway. i guess the people in those apartments don't have enough room to store all of them in their homes so they must resort to using public spaces. everyone must be on the honor system here, i didn't see any cabbage thieves. i think they also want to keep them in the cold.
windowsill presentation. i really like this picture, maybe i will submit it to some kind of vegetable enthusiast magazine.
i'm not even sure if this is cabbage (it looks a little too green) but i thought it was so strange that someone hung up one piece of it up outside of their apartment. what is the reason?!??
this is dalian in a nutshell! you've got the cabbage, the little shop, the strung radishes, the trash, the bike, the hill, other random vegetables....all in one picture! layers and layers of things. although usually the bikes here do not look that new.
this poor little piece didn't make it home :( usually you think of trash as being soda cans, water bottles, etc., but in china, the trash is little bits of cabbage. if only that were actually true...
a met a few people along the way too. i was walking by this guy's shop and noticed there was some cabbage in it, so i thought sweet, indoor picture! however, as i was taking the picture, i realized that he could see me. i thought i was covertly hiding behind something outside the shop but it turned out to have a glass window, lol. so i figured i should ask him if i could take a picture of his cabbage first. he was like...okay...hahah. the first one i just focused on the vegetable, but then i figured he wouldn't care if i just got everything in it so i took this one. i'm not exactly sure what kind of shop this is.
everything looks all calm and happy in this picture but in reality things were out of control only moments before. i was taking a picture of this measly stock when all of a sudden that dog came running out of the doorway and started barking at me really loudly. it must have been his owner's store. my first thought was that i was about to die, but then i saw that it was just a tiny little dog and his owner was running after him telling him to stop. the dog ran all the way up to me and i had no clue what to do so i started dancing around screaming in semi-faux fear. at that point i thought the worst that could happen was that he would nip at me a little. finally his owner made her way over and scooped him up. so crisis averted. i didn't want her to think that i was trying to steal her pile so i told her that i had seen a lot of cabbage that day and didn't know why it was everywhere. she didn't seem surprised at all by my question, the invasion was definitely a new thing. all i could catch from her was that it was a winter food. i was lucky that she was nice!
when i was walking back to school i ran into one of my students. i was like oh my god, i have to get a picture of him with the cabbage. he didn't quite understand what i was asking him to do so he also picked up a carrot. i think the vendors were like what in gods name is that girl doing, but they just ignored me, so it was okay haha.
that concludes my much-lacking post on cabbage!
i'm sorry, this is probably going to be way too many pictures of this leafy green for some people, but it was just very impressive. i also chose these few out of like 200 pictures hahah. i was being pretty obnoxious with my camera that day.
this is one the cabbage trucks that i first ran into. i must have seen like 10 of these trucks just in the little area outside of my school alone. it looks like in the first picture they were just selling the them straight from the truck but other vendors were also taking them out and piling them up on the sidewalks. if you'll notice in the second picture, the vendor has a ton of cabbage behind his little presentation pile that he tried to cover with some blankets.
some of them were lined up outside of people's businesses, but these weren't restaurants. i think during the winter the chinese feel they must have cabbage available to them at all times. they do such a nice and neat job of laying them out.
here is some on the wall of a waterway. i guess the people in those apartments don't have enough room to store all of them in their homes so they must resort to using public spaces. everyone must be on the honor system here, i didn't see any cabbage thieves. i think they also want to keep them in the cold.
windowsill presentation. i really like this picture, maybe i will submit it to some kind of vegetable enthusiast magazine.
i'm not even sure if this is cabbage (it looks a little too green) but i thought it was so strange that someone hung up one piece of it up outside of their apartment. what is the reason?!??
this is dalian in a nutshell! you've got the cabbage, the little shop, the strung radishes, the trash, the bike, the hill, other random vegetables....all in one picture! layers and layers of things. although usually the bikes here do not look that new.
this poor little piece didn't make it home :( usually you think of trash as being soda cans, water bottles, etc., but in china, the trash is little bits of cabbage. if only that were actually true...
a met a few people along the way too. i was walking by this guy's shop and noticed there was some cabbage in it, so i thought sweet, indoor picture! however, as i was taking the picture, i realized that he could see me. i thought i was covertly hiding behind something outside the shop but it turned out to have a glass window, lol. so i figured i should ask him if i could take a picture of his cabbage first. he was like...okay...hahah. the first one i just focused on the vegetable, but then i figured he wouldn't care if i just got everything in it so i took this one. i'm not exactly sure what kind of shop this is.
everything looks all calm and happy in this picture but in reality things were out of control only moments before. i was taking a picture of this measly stock when all of a sudden that dog came running out of the doorway and started barking at me really loudly. it must have been his owner's store. my first thought was that i was about to die, but then i saw that it was just a tiny little dog and his owner was running after him telling him to stop. the dog ran all the way up to me and i had no clue what to do so i started dancing around screaming in semi-faux fear. at that point i thought the worst that could happen was that he would nip at me a little. finally his owner made her way over and scooped him up. so crisis averted. i didn't want her to think that i was trying to steal her pile so i told her that i had seen a lot of cabbage that day and didn't know why it was everywhere. she didn't seem surprised at all by my question, the invasion was definitely a new thing. all i could catch from her was that it was a winter food. i was lucky that she was nice!
when i was walking back to school i ran into one of my students. i was like oh my god, i have to get a picture of him with the cabbage. he didn't quite understand what i was asking him to do so he also picked up a carrot. i think the vendors were like what in gods name is that girl doing, but they just ignored me, so it was okay haha.
that concludes my much-lacking post on cabbage!
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