perceptions of the japanese

since i've been back, a few people have asked me about the chinese people's perceptions of the japanese people. well, here is something that has been floating around QQ lately, the chinese version of AIM.

basically, the list goes through a bunch of positive words, and says when you put them all together, you get a chinese person, and then goes through a bunch of negative words, and says when you put them all together, you get a japanese person. ouch!

then it says to send this out to make chinese people proud...!

so...yeah, relations may still be a little strained.

home

so this post is going to be all about me because....

i am home!

i'm not going to lie, even though i was looking forward to coming home, it was really, really hard to leave china. the night before i was leaving i almost couldn't bear to finish packing up all my stuff because then i knew i would officially be leaving it all behind. i didn't have that much to pack but it took me forever.

this is the last picture of myself in dalian before i stepped into the airport. i had a few friends offer to see me off at the airport, but i declined. i thought, well, here i am, this crazy girl who came to china all on my own, and it would only be fitting to leave on my own too. maybe it's selfish, but i wanted the moment all to myself....and my cab driver, who had to listen to me crying in the backseat hahah. the last person i saw was my manager, april, who was also the first person i saw in china. she took the cab with me to an ATM to make sure that the driver wouldn't leave with all my stuff while i was withdrawing the rest of my money. i didn't think that this would be likely to happen but i let her come along anyhow. i didn't believe it at first, but now i can say with confidence that april is crazy. we had our ups and downs working together but in the end we were friends. we had a nice good bye- not sappy, very quick, and very happy.
the picture above is deceiving though because i honestly left china as happy as a clam, as you can see below.

"don't be said that it's over, be happy that it happened."

this picture is from my good bye party, my last night out in dalian. i really wasn't interested in a sad good bye with my friends, i just wanted to have fun together one last time, and it was definitely a good night. and yes, i am wearing a traditional chinese a dress and holding a chinese fan, because it was my party and i could do whatever i wanted!

then i had an 18 hour layover in tokyo which turned out to be the biggest tease of my entire life. if you are like me and love traveling, never go to a new country for this amount of time. i'm happy that i had the opportunity to see it (who knows if i will be back!) but it literally made my body ache when i had to leave. the people there fascinated me (their lifestyle and appearance seems sooo different from chinese people) and i was curious about their lives. at any rate, i saw the lights, i ate the melt-in-your-mouth-good sushi/sashimi, and i checked out their super cute diner style restaurants.
i also had a little bit of a culture shock in tokyo- i couldn't believe how polite people were. when i was using the subway, people actually stood aside to let the passengers get off before they got on. i thought what are you people doing, we need to get on that car!! when getting on such things in china, newly purchased eggs will crack all over the ground, someone will steal what you thought was going to be your seat, and an old woman who looks like a nice little grandma will nearly push you down. you will feel indignant for a while, and then you will get over it. what is politeness anyhow, things are more interesting when life's a free for all, and when people are polite in that kind of environment, you really appreciate it!

so, after a 4 hour flight to tokyo, 18 hours in tokyo, and a 12 hour flight to DC, i finally made it home. i almost missed my flight in tokyo out of my own stupidity (i had my phone still set on china time, which is an hour earlier than tokyo time) and i think i slept a total of like 5 hours. at any rate, the important thing is that i made it. zach and my mom, two people who i know really missed me a lot, came together to pick me up at the airport :)
i felt a little different being back in america- although i have already moved back in with my parents and continued my process of mooching off of them until the last minute possible, i definitely grew up a lot in china. i feel more ready to take flight with my life. i learned how to stand up for myself and fight battles in a system that's extremely hard to win in (and according to an email i just got from a manager about 20 minutes ago, apparently we did win a battle with the dalian education bureau), i learned what it means to be a leader and have hundreds of people counting on you, and i gained some perspective about everything i have that's fortunate in my life, and some things that are lacking. i think the most important thing i learned is that as a whole, people share more similarities than they do differences. even in a country like china where the culture is vastly different from our own, at an individual level, it's very easy to find people who share the same values as you.

on that note, ever since i got home i have been trying to think about what i will miss the most in china, and it finally came to me- the people. i really like the chinese people. now i am certainly biased because my western appearance afforded me some special treatment there, but i even liked the people i never made contact with, just from observing their habits and the way they carried themselves. many chinese people are modest in lifestyle and appearance, which i like. i'm not a fan of our lifestyle excesses because i think they detract from living (what i consider to be) a meaningful life and mask the things that are actually important. admittedly, these excesses also exist in china, and as people continue to find wealth i'm sure they will be exacerbated, but at least i experienced it before that happened.

*some chinese people playing cards together outside in the middle of winter*

a few things of note that have changed about me- i feel uncomfortable walking into a house and not removing my shoes, i prefer squat toilets in public places, i prefer using chopsticks over forks when eating small things that can be picked up quickly that way, i like eating communally with nothing but a bowl of rice to put my food on, i like wearing vests, i see the value in cleaning things, i don't like pushing to get on a bus but i will push to get off a bus, i like to drink hot water sometimes, i love the way chinese sounds, i don't mind public showers, and crossing streets with cars coming at me is no problem.

some things that have not changed- i still don't like karaoke, i don't spit or blow snot rockets on the ground, i don't want to clothe my child in puffy pants that expose their fronts and backs to the wind, i can't de-bone meat using my mouth, most chinese clothes are not attractive, and i think bargaining is tacky. on the other hand, i don't wish for these things to change, how will our world be interesting if there are no differences to make comparisons with.

anyhow, peace out dalian, you were a great choice, it's been real and i will never forget you!

photos from my last 2 days of school

i wasn't going to make another long post about my students, but i can't help myself, i have to put these pictures up! i didn't actually have school these last 2 days, i just went in to say good bye to the kids. both days were a little rushed- jumping from one classroom to another, but hey, that was kind of my life here anyhow. it was so nice to see the kids for the last time.

the first day of good byes was at zhongxin school with my 4th graders. my teacher friend jane was GREAT, she took me around to all of my classes, interrupting whatever normal lesson they were having at the time, and helped me take some pictures with them.

this class has a bunch of sweet hearts in it, some of my best little student friends in dalian. including...

...this little girl, alice!
actually, i didn't know alice very well until after this picture was taken. jane just happened to pull her up to the front to take a picture. after this day, she somehow got a hold of my QQ number and my cell phone number (i know at least one girl in that class has my cell number) and started chatting with me. at first i couldn't figure out who she was, because her english was so good on QQ, and i thought i knew all the kids in that class with good english. so i sent the class picture to her and she pointed herself out to me, and i realized that she was the little girl i had gotten a solo pic with :) she never spoke in my class, i never even knew her!!! i sent her our picture on QQ, she said,

alice 4:45:09 PM
it is me ,a shy girl
alice 4:46:02 PM
happy moment to me

a happy moment for me too!

now we chat online, and she occasionally sends me text messages. fun :)


another class with some cuties. this is the class my mom and dad visited when they came to dalian. in a letter i got from one boy in this class, ray, he said that he hoped to see my parents again :) what a considerate little boy.

this girl is so adorable all i can do is laugh

finally we came to my favorite class at this school (jane's fave class too). jane took me there last because she had planned for them to sing a song. the song was SO CUTE. i loved it so much. i really just wanted to sit and enjoy it but i knew i would be so sad if i didn't have some pictures and a little clip of them singing it.


jane doing her thing. she is a great, great teacher. from what i've seen, very few chinese teachers are this high-spirited and plan such fun activities with their classes. she's very out-going, confident, and thoughtful.

let's all wave our arms and sing

a video clip...


so happy i got a picture with this student. his name is tom, and he is the best, so i had to throw a v sign with him. he'd give me cute little notes just like the little girls would, haha. he also was the giver of the "i like you" egg from last semester. i like the chinese word for 'chubby' better than 'chubby', it's 小胖 (xiao pang), or little fat, so i will call him a xiao pang baby.
LUCKY!!!

i got a picture with their teacher too, she's great, i liked her the best out of all the homeroom teachers. she's very friendly and i like that she used a little clapper to get the kids to be quiet (most teachers just have a scary wooden stick). i've never seen her seriously angry at the students before. they don't change their homeroom teachers here in elementary school, so i can say that she raised a good class.


together with the class after their performance. it looks like xiao pang baby is giving me bunny ears.


the guards were really great at zhongxin school too, they were very friendly (i always said hello and good bye with them), and it seemed like they worked a lot harder than the guards at the other schools (carrying things up the stairs, doing repairs, etc.). they acted like huge goofballs before we took the picture, they changed their clothes and fixed their hair. but the guy on the right has no hair...haha.


jane and i left after the class visits and went out for lunch and shared a delicious meal together. i really like this picture. i think out of everyone i'll miss her the most when i go home.


after lunch i went back into the school to say good bye to jane and see her off. many exciting things were happening, the kids were decorating for their school party the next day. the little girl ran out to say hello, but it was actually good bye!




the second day of good byes was at the small school, hutan, with my 6th graders. they invited me to come to their holiday party, and i was very happy to go.

i wasn't exactly sure what the holiday party was going to be like- but for some reason i imagined the whole school would be together in the lobby area just mingling and having a few performances. angela, my friend there, said the party started at 8am and ended at 11am. it seemed really long for a party, and really early, so i told her i'd be there at 9am.

unfortunately, the party set-up was different than i imagined (the parties were in individual classrooms), i arrived a little late and the party ended at 10am rather than 11. it was my first official day that i could sleep in and it was so hard to get up....but i was so angry with myself. i should have gotten there earlier.

at any rate, i got to enjoy a little bit of their holiday parties. i had 4 class parties to go to, and i made it to 3 of them. when i walked into the 4th class, the teacher was totally mean and said the class party was over. it was like 10am on the dot, she could have at least let the kids do a 2 minute performance so i could enjoy their party too. basically, i walked in there, the kids gave me a bunch of presents, and then i had to walk out. it seemed rude, and that class had been the most adamant about me attending the party. i let them down a little :(

a happy boy with his snacks

they had decorated the rooms really nicely. the board says happy new years

angela always told me about how this boy was a little star at their school- he is acting on a tv show after school right now. his name is tony but for some reason he spells it tonny. they put a wig on him so he would look like the actual singer of the song, but i don't know who the singer is. he's got a great voice and stage presence :) i hope he will be a big star.



heres' a video of him singing, and angela fixing his hair!

this was my first time hearing the erhu, and i really liked it. he's really good! it looks like a cool instrument, simple, but produces a variety of sound.
his video


so many wonderful, talented students. if i don't see at least 1 of them again in the future, my life will be incomplete.

i got rock star treatment these last 2 days of school, which i should be embarrassed about, and i am a little, but actually i'm really not because it was so enjoyable and i really appreciated it. i am thankful to angela and jane for the opportunity to enjoy teaching at their schools :)

snow

it snowed!


i had been eating dinner with my student's family that night and we had no idea that it was snowing outside. when we got to the door we were all shocked. it was a nice restaurant, i feel like the staff could have informed us...


if you think the roads in china are crazy on a normal day, you should take a look at them when it snows. the rules, which are barely followed anyhow, are completely abandoned. people were facing all different directions on both sides of the road and they were all yelling at each other. i was delighted!

my student's family has a nice car, but it must not be anywhere close to 4 wheel drive because it was not driving very well in the snow. the fact that no one was moving when we were trying to go up a hill didn't help either, so we got stuck. my student, his dad and i had to get out of the car and push it up the hill while the mom drove. i really wanted to take pictures of the madness but the parents seemed to be freaking out a little so i restrained myself and concentrated on the car. at one point my student and i were cracking up though, their car looked like it was about to die and no one was heeding a fully operational stop light nearby.

everything turned out fine and we made it home all in one piece. i would have felt terrible if something had happened to their car since the only reason they were out that night was to take me out to dinner. we saw another car that was totaled, yikes.

the next morning the dalian workers were out in full force shoveling the snow! there really wasn't that much snow, i don't quite understand what they were shoveling. just leave it alone!

letters

this semester i had about 20 of my classes write me a letter, and i responded to every letter that i received by the following class. it wasn't very hard but it was very time consuming. i never really spent that much time making my lessons or anything like that (games that require little to no preparation are key) so i was happy to do some work for them. i got some extremely nice letters back- they will definitely be my best souvenirs from china.

i'd say this stack is about 900 letters.

johnson, one of my favorite students, wrote an awesome song/poem at the end of his letter. it's a little abstract and has a good style, i like it. he's only 10 years old, what a clever little boy. i think this would be a stellar poem for a 10 year old native english speaker!