Guess who received mail?

I did and I am extremely excited. I did not even have to race my sisters to the mailbox for it. The lady just handed it to me at my desk. Of course I put down my lesson planning and opened both letters right away.
Currently, I am sitting on the roof top enjoying the faint sounds of the city quieting down for the evening and the patio garden that someone has lovingly cared for. The moon is shining but the starts are not visible due to the city lights. Every now and then, a bat will swoop down but is off again as fast as it came. It is perfect temperature up here, approximately 28 degrees celsius with a light breeze. I could sleep out here if I was guaranteed that it wouldn’t rain. The weather here changes within minutes. At one moment it will be cloudy and grey and the next time I lift your head up from behind the paperwork it is raining

...pause .... I just gave a poor chinese women the scare of her life. She did now know that anyone was on the roof top let alone a foreigner madly typing away on her laptop. We spent about 3 minutes trying to converse in our native tongue realizing that we were not getting any where so she left. Moments later she returned with paper and pen and proceeded to write down what she was trying to tell me in Chinese characters. I am afraid my Chinese reading is worse then my speaking. Not that my speaking ability can carry on a decent conversation or any conversation for that matter. I asked, or gestured to her, if I could keep the paper and have my roommates translate it for me. I think she understood because I know have a message in hand an am waiting anxiously for my roommates to return home from school.

... now where was I, oh yes the weather. Last night we had a quite the thunder and lightening storm. I woke up and watched it for several minutes. I asked my students if they also woke up form the storm and they did not even know that it had rained. I think they study and work so hard that by the time their head hits the pillow

The lady went about her evening tai chee exercises while I finished writing.

I have been having problems with e-mails and I am not sending everyone blank e-mails on purpose. I just wrote with invisible ink, you have to use a decoding device. No, no, no, apparently, my computer at my office pretends to send e-mails but it really doesn’t, so I will see if I can try another method.

Exhausted

I am exhausted after a full day of teaching, aerobics, English corner, and dance class. So I leave you with this: Chinese + English = Chinglish. Chinese characters translated literally into English sentences it allows for unique and humorous statements.

Gotta love the freshness of all that fruit. Strolling through the market is a great way to observe the culture and to gain a glimpse of the types of food they eat. Lots of familiar things that are characteristic of any market, apples, grapes, pineapple, bananas, and oranges. Also, lots of tropical fruits such as durian, dragon fruit, pineapple, star-fruit, mangos, and some unfamiliar fruit. Inside the warehouse the vendors display their fresh vegetables, seafood, and meat. There are so many different types of leafy greens, onions, and mushrooms that I wouldn’t know even where to start. Chinese people like to know that their food is fresh so there are many live animals that are available to guarantee freshness. Styrofoam containers hold fresh clams, crabs, shrimp, fish, frogs, and many other sea and fresh water creatures. There are a few stalls that have large glass containters filled with all sorts of dried Chinese herbs and teas.

Enjoy the view, through the smog

The city goes on forever but the sun is unable to shine through the blanket of smog. Somedays I wish I could see the blue sky with white puffy clouds the ones where you can see bunnies and sailboats. I realized how dirty it is here in China when I return to my cubical office Monday morning, after a weekend of window shopping, to find a fine layer of dirt that had settled on my desk. It makes sense why it is custom here to wear house shoes or slippers because the tile floor is never truly clean and white socks would have black soles.
Oh, and did I mention that every nook and cranny smells like mothballs. Every time I open a cupboard or a drawer, whether it is in my apartment or in one of the classrooms at school, I am greeted with this unpleasant waft. Fortunately, this oh so wonderful fragrance dissipates quickly until the next time you open cupboard. I have tried airing out my closet but it didn't make I difference. I just hope that I am not walking around smelling like mothball while I am teaching.

I have to judge what?

A printing contest. Each student had to copy a passage using their best possible printing. There will be 10 first place winners, 20 second place winners, and 30 third place winners out of a total of 650 students, and you get to be the final judge. Fortunately, I did not have to sift through all 650 papers just 120. Do you know how hard it was to make a decisions especially after working in the Scrapbooking store where I have read several articles and books dedicated to handwriting. Well, I completed my official duty and the top ten students will be informed of their prize in the next couple of days, probably a new pen because they ran out of ink practicing for the competition. The students have very unique printing, the picture is a poor example, but many of the students add an extra loop to the top if their ‘i’ and ‘y’s also they like to make their ‘f’s have extra long tails. First thing on the agenda for tomorrow is marking the student’s writing compositions of their ‘dream house’. I don’t know why I thought it would be a good idea to give out a writing assignment so early in the term, but I did. My desk is covered in little English composition books and my goal is to have them all marked by the end of the day. They do not have binders or duotangs but these little 20 page books booklets with cartoons on the cover for their work. I will keep you posted about my progress. Also, if you look closely at the printing contest sheets of paper you will notice 4 ledger lines to write on. The red line is the base line where most of the letters will be positioned. There are two black lines above and one black line below the red line to help guide the height of the letters. How can your printing possible go wrong with everything so structured. So much for the blue dashed line dividing lines. The students whose paper is in the center of the photo had their paper upside down for his composition, so disregard that one as an example.

Motorbikes and honking

So many people and so many motorcycles.There are about the same number of motorcycles as there are cars here and if it is too busy on the road to drive then why not drive on the sidewalk and honk at the pedestrians. Oh, and why not squish two adults and two children onto a motorcycle because it is much more convenient than a car. There helmets look like a flimsy version of a hard hats and would likely fall off in the event of an accident but this is there most common mode of transportation. Cross walks, or 'Zebra roads', don’t really mean stop for pedestrians, just be aware of them. You really have to study the traffic, much like a surfer studies the waves. Once you make your move don’t second guess yourself or hesitate because there is no time for that. The people here do not even flinch as a vehicle crosses their path within inches from them. It is also not uncommon to be honked at several times if you are in the car or motorcycles way. At first, I was surprised at how much honking there was and it seemed like they just wanted to add their two bits to the noise pollution. If he can honk, then I can honk too, adding to the viscous cycle of honking chaos.

Dumplings 101

Haul out the bamboo steamer because it is time to make Cantonese pork dumplings. Okay, so if you don’t have a bamboo steamer a vegetable steamer will do. A successful dumpling cook off must include 3 Chinese teachers, one Foreign teacher, a willing husband to take photos, two teenage girls to run to the store for more ingredients and several steamers. First, prepare the filling. This step was prepared in advance before the dumpling cook off began, but as far as I could tell the filling included ground pork, minced ginger, shredded carrots, wild mushrooms, and corn kernels. Next, place a round siu mai wrapper (won-ton wrapper) in the palm of one hand and place 1 heaping table spoon of filling in center of wrapper. Folding the dumpling is tricky but with practice you will become a pro. Gently pressing the edges together in a fan like pattern gives the dumpling its unique shape and prevents the innards from escaping. Steam dumplings for 15-20 minutes and serve with soy sauce or spicy chilly pepper, sesame, and peanut sauce. Dumplings are my new favorite food and must be eaten with chop sticks and soy sauce.