Ponchos, Umbrellas and Wet Feet

Before I came to China people would say “I’m glad you’re going for one year because you get to see China in all the seasons!” I didn’t quite understand what that meant until I experienced a rainy day in Hangzhou. It is so incredibly different here when it rains. People who seem normal riding E-bikes on a sunny day turn into very colorful ghosts of purple, red, yellow, green or pink! Often they carry one or more passengers so you might see four or six legs hanging out of their poncho. The Chinese people just make things work. They seem to live in a necessity based culture. You don’t have what you don’t need - that’s just a waste. If they do not drive an E-bike (scooter) they use a regular bike - one hand holding an Umbrella, the other steering - what a talent! And if they do not ride a bike they simply share an umbrella with a friend. I took this picture today out of my school’s cafeteria window! I was amazed at how many umbrellas I saw! My last class this afternoon I asked each student if they were happy - this gave me an opportunity to get to know them a little better and for them to practice english with simple conversation. Most said “I’m happy because there is nothing to be sad about”. I couldn’t complain about this answer. I came to one student and he said “to be honest I am not so happy”. He said that he had wet feet and this made him sad. :( I might bring an extra pair of dry socks with me to school next time it rains :)

First Week Of Classes

I met all of my students this week in eight classes. They are all very interesting to me as I am to them! At the beginning of each class I asked them if they’d ever had a foreign teacher before. There were two students that had out of 180! I thought this was pretty obvious the way they reacted to me - for example: One class as I walked in gave me a standing ovation! These kids are precious! They are all in grad school so many of them are my age or older which is funny. To introduce myself I showed them some pictures of my life in america, my dog, my husband and my family. When they saw a picture of Kyle the boys thought he looked like Rooney who plays soccer for Manchester and the girls just said “Oh, SO handsome!” (I agree with the girls more than the boys on this one!) I am very excited to get to know them, this is going to be a great year!

I Feel Violated

What a day this has been! We met Frank at 7:00 AM to take a bus to the international health check place! We got lost along the way - an hour later we arrived to our destination. We hurriedly filled out our paperwork to get into a very long line of foreigners from all over the world! I had no idea what to expect! The health examinations were set up in different pods. The first one we came to was called “blood and urine”! You guessed it - You stuck your arm through a hole in the window and a woman took your blood, handed you a cup and pointed to the restrooms. Kyle told them he might faint - they did not shrug off this warning! They took him around to their side of the counter, pulled out a lawn chair recliner and had him lay down. I held his hand and made him talk to me the whole time :) NEXT was the urine. it was SO embarrassing! In the states you would go into a private restroom and place the cup in a discrete cabinet and go on. Here you bring it out in front of everyone - no lid included. I peed in a cup, set it down and realized it had a hole in it! I ran out of the bathroom and frantically tried to get another cup! The language barrier took hold of the situation and I didn’t get my new cup in time to save it all. I gave the woman what was left and she yelled at me and threw it in the trash as if to say “that’s not good enough try again”! I asked what I should do and she said (by this time I had a translator) “get some water, drink it, and pee again” like it’s that easy! Waiban Frank asked her where the water was and she yelled again - she didn’t like me much. He found some water for me and I drank it while I went through the other pods. They did an ultrasound of my liver, an EKG, an ENG...the works! I felt like a herd animal driven through the shoots. It was so weird! Once out I felt glad it was over.

I Feel Violated

What a day this has been! We met Frank at 7:00 AM to take a bus to the international health check place! We got lost along the way - an hour later we arrived to our destination. We hurriedly filled out our paperwork to get into a very long line of foreigners from all over the world! I had no idea what to expect! The health examinations were set up in different pods. The first one we came to was called “blood and urine”! You guessed it - You stuck your arm through a hole in the window and a woman took your blood, handed you a cup and pointed to the restrooms. Kyle told them he might faint - they did not shrug off this warning! They took him around to their side of the counter, pulled out a lawn chair recliner and had him lay down. I held his hand and made him talk to me the whole time :) NEXT was the urine. it was SO embarrassing! In the states you would go into a private restroom and place the cup in a discrete cabinet and go on. Here you bring it out in front of everyone - no lid included. I peed in a cup, set it down and realized it had a hole in it! I ran out of the bathroom and frantically tried to get another cup! The language barrier took hold of the situation and I didn’t get my new cup in time to save it all. I gave the woman what was left and she yelled at me and threw it in the trash as if to say “that’s not good enough try again”! I asked what I should do and she said (by this time I had a translator) “get some water, drink it, and pee again” like it’s that easy! Waiban Frank asked her where the water was and she yelled again - she didn’t like me much. He found some water for me and I drank it while I went through the other pods. They did an ultrasound of my liver, an EKG, an ENG...the works! I felt like a herd animal driven through the shoots. It was so weird! Once out I felt glad it was over.