JDF Sports Meet and Talent Show 2013

Chinese schools don't really have football, basketball, soccer, volleyball teams, etc.  Instead they have a yearly program called a sports meeting, where they block off 2-3 days of school for sporting events and other festivities. It's pretty fun to have a break from the grind of school and watch my students enjoying the fall sunshine, plus it makes me happy to see them doing something other than studying :)
Yesterday was the first day and in the afternoon we had a big opening ceremony, where a bunch of JDF officials and other guys in suits sat at a long table up on stage and watched all the classes give a variety of performances ranging from dancing to martial arts to flag twirling. Then that night, a huge stage was set up with a professional sound and lighting crew, lots of flowers, and giant red lanterns attached to banners that floated high up above the stage. It was quite the sight to see! All of this was for the student and teacher talent show, complete with 4 student emcees dressed up like celebrities, crazy stage lights (strobe, searchlights, random patterns, colors, you name it), a panel of judges, and of course the entire student body sitting out in the audience. Last week, my colleagues talked me into performing for the show, and I really had no idea that this is what I was getting myself into. But it was fun, and even though I was initially thrown off by how big of an event it turned out to be, I felt alright once I got up there and sat at the piano. I played and sang Coldplay's "Fix You," simply because I  knew it pretty well already, and would be able to navigate through it when the nerves turn my sheet music into a blur.

Lindsey took a video of the performance and if it's not too horribly embarrassing I'll post it when she gets it uploaded onto her computer. In the meantime, please enjoy this compilation video I made of the rest of the talent show! It contains a great mix of traditional Chinese performing arts, Chinese pop music, and western dance and music.

More autumn-themed student poetry and stories

For my younger class, I opened up the creative writing assignment to include both poetry and stories. While the grammar and vocab was a little sloppier than in my older classes, they still produced some pretty great work:

When autumn wakes up
She finds that everything turns red
Squirrels run around her and say hello to her
In the sky, she can see migrating birds
Also, the foliage are on the tree
When people see her come
They dress up their overcoat
And they make a bonfire outside.
She says "Why?"
They smiled "Because your are coming."

Autumn is coming

The squirrels are showing
The weather is so chilly
The bonfire make me don't feel cold in the evening
And we can see the wind making the leaves fly with migrating birds
in the setting sun

The stories were a bit on the morbid side. This one made me laugh. it starts out with a cute story about a squirrel and then takes an unexpected turn..

One day, a squirrel want to eat acorns. But because of the blustery weather, the leaves fell down on the ground and covered the acorns. The squirrel walked on the leaves and heard them crunch under its feet, but it can't find the acorns. It felt hungry because of the chilly weather, and it was also very cold. Then it found a bonfire. At that time, one of the migrating birds fell into the fire, so the squirrel can eat it. 

Surprisingly enough it was mainly the girls in the class who were killing off all the squirrels and birds in their stories.

Autumn, Nostalgia and Student Poetry Samples

Here in Yichang, there is no "slipping into autumn."  Yesterday was in the mid 80s, and today is in the high 50s.  Nonetheless, the usual anticipatory feelings of fall occupy my thoughts most of the time and I can't help but feel a little homesick for fall in Washington. Accordingly, I've been spending the week teaching my students about autumn customs in the States and introducing a cornucopia of autumn themed vocabulary. This unit has also given me plenty of opportunities to share and talk about pictures of home, something that my students seem to enjoy just as much as I do.  Today, I showed them photos of Greenbluff pumpkin-picking trips, autumn hikes up on Mt. Rainier, and apple-pear-pecan pies. I think I actually succeeded in making my students homesick for Washington, haha!

An autumn walk on 73rd Avenue

Anyway, I wanted to share with you some of the poems my students wrote in class today. I seriously can't get over the bottomless well of creativity that is my high school senior ESL class. These poems warmed my heart on this blustery fall day, and I hope they bring you some joy too.



With the falling acorns
the squirrel start to find food for winter
day by day 
the leaves turn to yellow
migrating birds fly to some place where 
are more warm

An old couple living in a suburban area
there is a forest near by their cottage
they like to walk in the forest to listen
sounds from leaves crunch under their feet

(by Seking)

Leaves falling down

Forests changing their colour

migrating birds are flying

the sun pulling down

the sky turning light

squirrels are playing around

what a fantastic season 

that is wonderful autumn

(by Crystal) 

geese fly to the south

foliage falling down

the squirrels find acorns

everything obeys nature's rules

(by Leo)

Davis is laughing

The leaves fall

Squirrels collect acorns

Davis is laughing

a child points at him but is stopped by his mom

"That's a crazy man.

It's time to go home."

(by Alicia)

missin my KK

One day, I wake up

I find I cannot hear the voice of birds

The leaves become yellow and lonely

Like an old book

Sleeping in a long term

But I am hearing that

People are walking on the foliage

          "ke tz"      "ke tz"

That is not the sound of heart broken

I see you

Standing in the wind

I do not want to be serious 

So I plant a flower

(by Lay and Tilda)

Lindsey quote of the day

"Don't be alarmed, I'm laying out my socks to dry in here. I just hope it doesn't cramp your style."

this girl. 

The most ridiculous excuse for a 5k "Fun Run"

This is a 5k that I did with Shah, my English teacher friend from the UK, and some other staff at the Trinity English Training Center. Despite the poor organization, the lack of actual running, and the superfluous opening and closing ceremonies, this was a pretty fun way to start off my weekend. In this video, I am in front of one of the teams and the whole time they were shouting some chant in Chinese (something like "run for health, health for life") and Shah and I would respond "Bei fing bam poo pah!" I think we are assimilating pretty well.

Living alone

My school and apartment are on the far north end of town. We are pretty far from the city, and it's about a 15-minute walk down the mountain for me to access any public transportation. I see other fluent English speakers on weekends, but on weekdays, its pretty much Chinese people and me, myself and I.
Getting used to living alone has been quite the process so far. If you know me, you know being alone is not one of my strong suits. Today was good, though. Went on a run down on the Yangtze after school and came back to find a group of old people dancing in the parking lot in my compound.  Other nights I would have gotten mad and cursed them for playing music this time of the night and choosing the spot right underneath my balcony for their rehearsal. But tonight the endorphins were pumping and I decided to join them. Turns out there are some pretty cool old folks in my compound-- a sprightly and good humored bunch. When I went back to my apartment after the rehearsal, one of them came by. Smiling and saying something in rapid Mandarin, she handed me a bag of apples and moon cakes. I was so appreciative of her thoughtfulness that I forgot the custom of refusing gifts at first and only accepting after offered a few times!
Either way, tonight left me feeling very optimistic and grateful.

Days when I love my job

I've been doing a unit on literature with my high school students, and today I had them do an activity to prepare for watching the award-winning animated short "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore." I showed them some stills from the film and had them write their own stories and make predictions about what the movie would be about. These are the pictures I gave them: 

The fantastic flying books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from Kieran Donaghy

Here is a response that came from one group of kids in my senior class:

During World War II, there was a man who was hopeless and was going to commit suicide. He was on the 5th floor balcony, about to jump off when he saw a girl flying by with many books. The girl said, "I can give you a book which can take you far away." The book could speak, and one day, it took him to an isolated library. There were lots of books like that book there, and they could walk and speak. And the book said, "there is your home," and the man felt shocked. He went out and found a desolate world where it was very cold and still in ruins. He was really nervous. He remembered that whenever wars happened his grandma would tell him "if you have hope everywhere is paradise, but if you are hopeless everywhere is war." Finally the man realized that these books meant hope, and that books can save hopeless people.

So yeah, I corrected some of the spelling and grammar, and there are still some weird lexical choices, but there are some truly beautiful things in this passage! It makes me appreciate the extent to which meaningful things can still be conveyed despite language barriers. Even more, hearing my kids' stories today filled me with such joy for my students and the creativity they bring to my classes. I realize that my style of teaching sometimes pushes my kids past their comfort zones in terms of using their imagination and formulating original ideas, so I am filled with joy as I see them adapting and improving daily in these areas. Although introducing this new style of teaching has been tough in the beginning I know it is worth sticking to, because if I can make their English learning memorable and meaningful, it will not only be more fun but it will help them to better retain the material. If any of you have 15 minutes and are interested in checking out the film, here is a link! It's a good one! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxrYDaj0dbs

Kirsten and Lindsey do Beijing

When Lindsey and I were in Beijing this past week for the national holiday, we went to the Forbidden City, a 500 year old imperial palace that today is one of the top tourist attractions in China. While we explored the grounds and buildings that lay within these massive walls, something (who knows what) compelled us to take part in the tackiest, most ridiculous of tourist activities: for 100 yuan, which is the equivalent of about $16, we rented kimonos and shot a video of us flying in front of a green screen, which was then superimposed onto moving aerial shots of different scenes around Beijing. Best $16 I've ever spent. 

And now, folks, at the very low cost of Kirsten's dignity I present to you all: "Lindsey and Kirsten fly through Beijing" or alternatively titled "interracial lesbian tourism ad" 

After the video was made, we ventured out in our kimonos to take pictures in front of the palace, and let me tell you, this was not the best idea we've had in awhile. We were immediately swarmed by hordes of tourists wanting to take pictures of us and with us. The whole 'photos with random strangers' thing has taken some time to get used to, but we had experienced it everywhere we'd gone in China. Slap some kimonos on those laowais and that's a game changer if I've ever seen one. Two American girls wearing kimonos in the Forbidden City? Now that's just too good. These Chinese tourists, man.. they get aggressive. When we tried to walk away, some would grab our wrists or shoulders and "playfully" (but sometimes a little roughly) usher us back to take pictures with their other friends. We ended up standing there for at least ten minutes taking pictures rapid-fire with who knows how many tourists. When we were finally able to break away, we tore off those kimonos, handed them back to the lady at the booth with a sigh of relief, and booked it outta there.

this lady took about 8 photos of us with her kid on Lindsey's camera, and her finger was in every single one of them!

On the day before our holiday for Chinese National Day, one of my students ironically decided to wear a giant American flag shirt. First of all: what? Second of all: where can I get myself one of these things?