Qing Wendy

It continues to be great fun teaching my students conversational English.  As part of their work, I assign them weekly prompts to be used for short skits that they present before the class.   I have started recording their performances with my iPhone so I can go back over their work and find the spots that I could not understand.  I hate to interrupt their performances.  I’m starting realize now that so much of communication is based on expectations.  Sometimes I just don’t expect them to say the things they are going to say.   A couple of weeks ago the general topic for conversation related to “addictive substances”.  I asked that one of the students in their conversation pairs play a concerned friend and the other play someone who was possibly developing a drug addiction problem.  One of my “potentially addicted” students said something like: “Sometimes I like to go to the clubs and have my XXX XXX me like knights looking up their XXX....

So I haven't posted much, because I’m grading papers... which is actually fun.  The students are quite amazing.  They are g ood in English and describe lives that are so different from what our kids are subjected to.  Most have been away at boarding school, or grew up with grandparents, so have a complex relationship with their parents.  Most are only children. I'm planning on bringing out themes on issues that they talk about, when I can get out from under the pile of papers that I'm currently grading. However, to prepare you, I give you the following paper by one of my students, Lily. The assignment was to write a narrative essay on something "Lost but Learned."  I received all sorts of interesting topics.  Many, many wrote about lost friends.  These are students who had close childhood friends in grammar school and had to leave them behind when they either went to study abroad or at a boarding school.  They write about that loss in terms of...

The Rainbow Bridge! 48.38 miles/week ! Coming from Southern California, commutes are not usually associated with restful, relaxing, and green. All three are true of my walk from my apartment in “faculty village #1” to the foreign language building.   Our apartment is on the north-east side.   The foreign language building is on the south-west side.   Therefore, every day that I have class, I walk the hypotenuse.   As a result, my fitbit tells me that I’m frequently walking upward of 50 miles each week.   Let me take you on my walk! Over the rainbow bridge So, first you walk over the “Rainbow Bridge.”   Yes!   We have one.   It connects the faculty housing to the campus.   Unfortunately there are no pets on the other side.   There is a security detail and many, many cameras, so I feel very safe. Next, you walk along this very beautiful, leafy avenue with, yes, more cameras.   At about this point, there is ...

Wendy and I visited the Muslim quarter today.  You can really sense that you are on the old Silk Road.  Men and women wear traditional Muslim hats, head scarves and spices and scents of the Middle East are in the air.  Check out these different kinds of bread!  We tried the one with the decorative edge.  There were small seeds in (sunflower, I think) and it was delicious.

My students have required military training.   All young people in China do this.   Girls and boys both.   When we first arrived, there was an impressive army of students on the athletic field marching.   Young men and women both!    I have spoken to a young Chinese friend, a college student,  who told me more about it on Wechat.    She wrote,  “We do running early in the morning, around 6 AM, then have breakfast.   Then spend about 10 hours the rest of the day marching.”    I asked her about what the whole experience is like and if her uniform and boots were OK .   She wrote, “It’s kinda boring because we are required to repeat the same actions all the time and sometimes stand still at military poses for hours.   Quite suffering.”   She added, “The shoes are comfortable, but her heels and legs do hurt.”  Finally, she noted  “Girls need to learn military boxing and boys are going to ...

View of the moat Bell Tower in the Foreground Drum Tower in the distance (the city center) I can’t believe that we’ve been here more than 3 weeks, and haven’t written at all about the actual city of Xi’an!   Xi’an is probably best known for the Terracotta Warriors.    But the city itself has a lot to offer. Hua Pagoda, or Pagoda of the South Gate Xi’an started out with the name Chang'an, long peace – which is somewhat ironic, or maybe just wishful thinking   I wrote a little bit about the Tang dynasty (618-907), when I wrote about the pretty park near our house.   ( Aren’t these dates amazing?   Think about what was going on in Europe at this time ).   That’s when things started getting going in Xi’an.   The Silk Road – a trade route between China, Southeast Asia and Europe – was established. There was wealth, multiculturalism, artistic and philosophic thought, great sculptures and scientist – a real flourishing society. ...

The mid-Autumn festival has come and gone.   I had some moon cake!   These calorie dense cakes are essential for the holiday.   Mine had a sweet potato filling, but you can find them in all kinds of flavors, including chocolate, matcha, tarot and others.   A little bit goes a long way.   I love the decorative boxes you find them wrapped in.   The presentation is key. I want to share some hints for successfully transitioning into life in China.   Our first night here we had a big problem with mosquitoes.   Our friends Ai-ping and Ning took us to a large department store, Metro where we bought this amazing mosquito repellent that worked like a charm.   You plug it into the wall like and air freshener and it lasts about two weeks.   I can’t say enough good things about it. Xi’an is supposed to be quite dry, but fact is it has rained a lot lately.   Our friend June told us about a shoe store that has boots and shoes that fit w...