SonMan Is In China! (Year Three)

Yesterday morning I woke up with 6 hours sleep at 5:30 AM. I knew this would be my big day for getting packed and doing grading. And, believe me, it was long. The most difficult part of the day was gathering the momentum and stamina to grade by writing essays and stories. Finally, this task was finished at 11:00 PM. Throughout the day, I continued to do laundry (three loads), pack up stuff, wash dishes, pack clothes, and entertain visitors that popped in every now and then. By 11:45 PM, I had finished putting all of my six classes' grades on their respective sheets and began the final process of packing my apartment up and getting ready to leave for America.

It was not my intention at all, but I ended up not sleeping a wink. I simply had too much stuff to do. I "de-linted" my clothes, checked final emails, charged all of my electronic equipments, and prepared to leave. I got everything completely done by 5:30 AM, 30 minutes before I was supposed to leave.

I met the Clements & Kat downstairs and we headed to Changchun at 6 AM. They were heading out 2 hours after me, but it was cheaper for the school to take us all together. We said our final goodbyes as everyone except Sarah, Mark & Samantha came to see us off. The school provided a mini-van for us to Changchun.

At the airport, I checked in, had a final drink with the Clems & Kat, then headed to my gate. The flight left on time without a hitch. And I slept off and on.

I arrived at the new Beijing airport by 12:45 PM and then began the process to check-in for my departure flight at 4:10 PM to Chicago. Little did I know that the flight would be 5 hours delayed! When I finally got to the ticket counter, I was apologized to and then told that there were no Saturday night flights to Tulsa (as that was when I was due to arrive), that I would have to book a flight for Sunday morning to get to Tulsa, and that United would put me up in a hotel. I had a choice of an 8 AM or 12:30 PM flight. I chose the later as I thought since I'll get in so late, I want to enjoy my stay and sleep. If not, I'd have to be at the airport quite early.

So this leaves me here, still at the Beijing International Airport, sitting here typing about my travels woes, eating at Burger King, and taking naps on the not-so-comfy chairs.

Well, I am the first one on the team to return home. In about 2 hours, my L-O-N-G day begins. If all things go as planned, I should arrive safely in Tulsa, OK before 10 PM tomorrow night. I'm way stoked!

For Sophomore Oral class, each color group (a total of five) had presented an Oral Final project which encompassed EVERYTHING that they had been studied this term. I have been quite impressed as they have presented very complicated ideas in a very easy and concise way. Their creativity is most impressive and I'm constantly amazed by their abilities - both in using English to describe their created culture and in their actual presentations.

Each group had to create a society "from scratch". They had to make a flag, national holidays, past times, country name, and a capitol city among many other things. The class that presented their project on Thursday @ 8 AM TOTALLY had me busting up. Here below is the money that they had made for their culture.

As you can, their culture was called "Supercloud" and this currency is from the "Bank of Supercloud". You should notice there are black and white flowers. In their folktale (which also had to be made up), they retold the history of a white cloud and a black cloud that had people always at war. However, it was Sonny, their honored superhero featured on their bill, who brought the black and white clouds in harmony. And, of course, I'm deemed with the honor of being in the "666 Luck" club. Does anyone perceive the irony here?

P.S. - I hope this money is never put on the forehead or the right hand!

This Saturday (as in 5 DAYS FROM NOW) I'll be on a plane headin' back to the good ol' USA! I'm totally stoked. In the meantime, I got a slew of things to do. I have my Wheaton homework which is a priority to get done. I don't want to be back home with family and be pressured to do class work. I've completed about half of my packing, so that feels under control. I still have a good amount of grading, but it'll get done (even if it means pulling an "all niter").

But for today, I also want to give thanks for two special people: Jonny & Rachel Wu. Since they are our team leaders, today we have cornered this time (i.e., June 15th), as "Leader Appreciation Day". I have thoroughly enjoyed working with and alongside of them for three years, and I look forward to another year into 2009. Jonny & Rachel (and Samantha), you rock!

I'm getting nervous, excited, anxious, and stressed as I quickly approach my return home date of June 21st. I really am looking forward to seeing my two nephews, telling stories to my family of the past year, graduating with my Master's in August, and "chowing down" on some American food.

Last night, we had a performance to attend. Every graduating class from the Foreign Language Department performs dramas, songs, and dancing as a "final farewell". Well, my INGENIUS team decided to sing "Friends Are Friends Forever" by Michael W. Smith. I totally did my complaining for an evening (which I normally don't do), but, in the end, it was to no avail. I never liked the song because of it's true sappiness. Anyway, the song was enjoyed by the audience (though we could have bounced on our heads and ate bubble gum...all with the same reaction from the audience). Pictures will be forthcoming once I upload them. You'll see them in the album "Farewell Seniors 2008".

Jude and Will come over to my house A LOT since I'm like 20 feet away from their doorway. Below is the latest craziness that my room is privy to.

And check out this man who, in celebration of the 2008 Olympics, put 2008 needles on his face, head, shoulders & chest. And I thought I was stoked about the Olympics!(Thanks for the pic, Rach.)

The "brain child" of the Wu's came true with a team retreat to Shenyang. We had to debrief concerning our team experience this past academic year, so what better way than to do it on vacay! So we loaded up the team and went to Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province (directly to the south of Jilin).

We spent three days and two nights. Day one activities involved traveling with the first group (those who didn't have evening stuff to do). Nine of us arrived, got the hotels rooms set up, then headed for pizza at "I Love NY Pizza". It was awesome. You also may want to ask Wu about his experience with the "awesome goodness". The rest of the team arrived, and we headed for bed.

The first full day of activities involved a trip to the local Starbucks (about a 3-minute walk from our hotel). My Iced Green Tea was pure awesomeness! After a morning pow-wow, we headed to the Imperial Palace. It was built during the Qing dynasty and was used up to the Tang and Ming dynasties (I hope I got that right). We took some pics of the grounds and you can see them in the album entitled "Shenyang Retreat". You'll notice Jude in a lot of them because we're "buddies". In actuality, he's like my nephew substitute. He wanted to be on my shoulders for like the whole day!

After this, lunch was at a local McDonald's. I had a yummy Big Mac. We then went walking down some of the local streets, just relaxing and window shopping. It was quite quaint, and the architecture was intriguing. It looked to be European with Grecian columns, all in the midst of Chinese-styled buildings.

The afternoon found us debriefing. This was followed by a supper at the "Orso Goloso" (Italian for "greedy bear"). I had a calzone which was overpriced and didn't deliver, but it was still delicious. We wound up the night with some insane KTV. We went for two hours of insane madness. I never saw Jude run around so much; you'd think that he was ADD or something. He grabbed the tambourine that was in the room and just basically ran around for 2 hours. He actually outran Will in the energy department, which I'd never seen before. Sam became sick that day, and she actually went to sleep with all this craziness.

The next day found us at a park. I have a couple of videos showing the cat-like reflexes of Sarah & Kat, and the amazing prowess of Seth.

Lunch was then held at Stroller's, a restaurant with western-styled dishes. My bacon cheeseburger with fries was great, not to mention the potato skins, onions rings and nachos that I shared with Jennifer, Jude, Will and Kat. I went by myself in Shenyang and visited a Hagen Das, having a two-scoop ice cream of Peacan, Praline & Cream and Strawberry Cheesecake. That evening we returned home where I just crashed that night and it lingered over into Sunday. The trip was a hit and I hope we can do it again next year.

More than 80,000 dead or missing in China quake (May 22, 2008, Reuters) More than 80,000 people are confirmed dead or missing from China's worst earthquake in decades, the government said on Thursday. Previously, authorities had said they expected the final death toll to exceed 50,000. State Council Information office figures showed that the number of dead now exceeded 51,000, an increase of 10,000 on the previous day's death toll. It said more than 29,000 were still missing. The State Council added that more than 288,000 people were injured by the 7.9 magnitude quake in southwest China on May 12.

Bush mourns earthquake victims (May 21, 2008, Xinhua) US President George W. Bush visited the Chinese embassy here Tuesday, mourning the victims of a devastating earthquake in Sichuan, China, and conveying his condolences to the Chinese people. "We extend our deepest sympathies, and pray for recovery and pray for the strength of those whose lives have been torn apart during this terrible tragedy," he told US and Chinese reporters. Bush and the first lady Laura Bush observed a moment of silence before a black banner which reads "Our deepest condolence goes to the victims of the May 12 earthquake." Both the president and his wife signed the book of condolence.

1st Chinese tour group to leave for U. S. in June (May 16, 2008, China Daily) The first United States-bound Chinese leisure tour group is set to depart on June 17, signaling a new era in Sino-U. S. relations, a senior official said.  Shao Qiwei, head of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), will escort the inaugural tour group to Washington DC. Their arrival will coincide with the fourth China-U. S. Strategic Economic Dialogue, which would be hosted by the city. The first phase will last six months, during which time only nine provinces and municipalities can organize U. S. -bound tour groups, Shao said. Group members must be residents with hukou (permanent residence registrations) in Beijing, Tianjin or Shanghai municipalities, or Hebei, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces, he said.

Well, this morning I wrote "29天回国" on the message board outside my room. It means "29 days until I return home". I'm getting really excited now. Several things must be done before them, but in the mean time, I've got to prioritize. This week has been a whirlwind, but I haven't said what's really happening around here.

The Wus took their friend Sherry, a college bud, to Beijing, visiting local sites and stuff like that. The Wus left Wednesday and will return Sunday after they see Sherry off.

The college departments began their annual athletic competitions. This year it was the tug-o-war. Our department competed yesterday (featuring me, Daren, Mark, and Seth) along with 3 other male teachers and 3 female teachers (the school rules are 7 men and 3 women). However, we lost to the Biology department, which happened to be the same department we lost to two years ago. At that time, we didn't face them until the Semi-finals (we secured 3rd), but this year, we didn't even win 1 of the 3 pulls: we were 0-2. Suckage!

Samantha also celebrated her 1st birthday last Saturday. It was a beach theme. We had some strawberry smoothies that Rach made and they were good. There were games, prizes, and food (a perfect trifecta for Wu). Samantha had her first cake and cried as she ate it. It was funny.

Michelle had returned this week from her pilgrimage to see her brother get married. She had a great time and I think has finally readjusted back. She may not return to Siping next year as her desire is to go to Chinese northwest and work among the Uiyger.

I recently helped a Senior student complete her Thesis paper. It was a whopping 27 pages long and 11,500+ words. We still must do a three question Q & A, but that will be the final step. This activity has drained my time, but, when and if I do this again, I'll know more about what I should do.

One of my mini-dreams came true last week: I was able to finally spearhead a Spelling Bee. With the help of my fellow Freshman Oral teachers (Wu, Mark & Daren), we put together an awesomely preformed Spelling Bee on Saturday. (See the album "Spelling Bee" for pics.) Here's how we did it.

The First Round consisted of 20 words on a test given during class time. The definitions were by each blank (where the words spoken would be written). Every Freshman was given a chance in this Round. Since there are ten classes, the top three scores of each class were given a spot into the Second Round. (Wu's Education majors were an exception on being entered, but the "top three scores" rule still applied.) They were also given 2 weeks to prepare for the Second Round test and the actual Bee, which were the same day.

Those entering the Second Round were given a 300-word list called the AWL (Academic Word List). The AWL is the top 300 English words used within academic settings. The 33 students were made aware that prefixes and suffixes would also be added to the words on the list; therefore, we could make a slew of combinations.

The day of the Second Round test was Saturday morning. Again 20 words were given with definitions. The top fifteen advanced to the Third Round: the actual Bee. Each of the 15 received a certificate of achievement for this step. Lanyards were also dished out to track the contestant's activity and words given (and for a memento). Thus the Bee was ready to commence.

My job was the Reader of words; Wu was the "You are correct" guy; Daren was the bell ringer for when a spelling was wrong; and Mark was the PowerPoint guy as he would show the correct spelling of each word on PowerPoint to the audience. We began with the word "phenomenon" spelled correctly then we were off!

Round One found one incorrect spelling: "criteria". Round Two was a breeze as all 14 made it through. Round Three began the words with added prefixes and suffixes; here 3 went out with "uncooperative", "reedit", and "distressful". Round Four found 3 more going down with "inconsistently", "statuses", and "miniseries". Round Five left us with 7, and one went down with "metaphysical". Round Six knocked out two more with "citable" and "philosophically".

Thus Round Seven found 4 left. The stress level was thick in the room. Wu kept saying, "I can feel the tension." The words "surplus", "displayable", "reunification", and "feature" were given. Both "surplus" and "reunification" brought two of the spellers out leaving two young ladies. Round Eight commenced with the word "supplement" being spelled wrong by Contestant #5. Contestant #15 was given the word "uninspected", which was spelled flawlessly. Mary was, thus, the winner of the Spelling Bee.

We took pictures then presented her with 100 Yuan and a trophy. After the presentation, she said, "This certificate is mine and this trophy is mine, but this 100 Yuan is the for earthquake victims in Sichuan."

This act was indeed a highlight of my third teaching year.