SonMan Is In China! (Year 4)

The time has finally arrived that I make my way home back to America. I leave by night train to Beijing, arrive there tomorrow morning, take a United flight to San Francisco at noon, make another layover in Denver, then finally arrive in Tulsa. I should get to Tulsa around 8 PM on Saturday night. I actually gain time since I come from China. In total the trip will take about 48 hours…and the first thing that I will want (after a bag of Cheetos) is a nice, long shower.

This year has been the hardest for me in terms of motivation. I’m not sure why, but I’m surprised I’ve felt this way. I realize that being in a foreign culture can be hard and extremely difficult in ways that a person’s not normally used to. Perhaps this is just one area…or maybe I’ve recently become extremely lazy. I’ve always handed back homework to student quickly, but I’ve struggled this year to do that. Even my blogging has not been enjoyable or punctual as usual. I’m really looking forward to this summer in having no Grad class and will simply be able to be around family. No agendas and no harsh schedules. In the meantime, I’m packing up and compiling final grades. This Friday night I board a night train for Beijing where I will be flying out Saturday noon en route to the States. Ah, home sweet home!

The team traveled to beautiful Dalian in Liaoning province (about 7 hours by train southeast of Siping). It was our end-of-year retreat, simply to debrief highs and lows and discuss the entire year. We’ve spent three days here and it has been enjoyable: pigging out on pizza and cheese-everything, going around town, having numerous trip to Starbucks (Jude and I just love the Green Tea Frapps), and watching my first movie in a movie theater in China (we all saw “Night at the Museum 2”). We’ve had a great time together and our team retreats have become part of our team culture. We leave at 12:15 PM for Siping by train; it should take about 8 hours. We all have sleepers, so we can enjoy plenty of space while traveling. Last year at this time, we went to Shenyang, and this year it was Dalian. Hmmm, where to go next year?

I’m so stoked about coming home this summer! I don’t have Wheaton classes in Illinois; therefore, no travel to and from there, no homework, and no stress. This summer is gonna rock! As of right now, I’m working on several different dates and trips. Right now, I’m scheduled to go with the Clements to Washington, DC around the end of July. That’s probably the only out-of-state trip I’ll take. Most of the time I plan to stay in or around Tulsa/Muskogee.

In team news, we’ve recently discovered that Vance will be leaving us for the States next year. Sarah is possibly going to Changchun, but nothing is secured at this point. We did receive word of two new teachers to my school – both women with one being from Maine and one from Alabama. They’re living the dream of coming to teach in China!

Former teammate, Michelle, is visiting us from Kashgar (that’s in northwest China). It’s good to see her and have her presence near us. She’s going home early for unknown reasons; she does seem tired and disillusioned. I’m glad she’s able to visit us and laugh into the late night hours.

Some of my more faithful and compassionate teammates visit the local Siping orphanage on a weekly basis. Kat has been in amazing contact with them as to the needs of the children. Recently, three children have come to the point of needing serious assistance: one with a cleft palate and two with club feet (see the pics).   The former is quite easy to fix as the child must be of age and weight; the latter is harder to find help. Kat has actually secured a hospital in Guilin (far south  China) who will have multiple casts over a year long process to “recreate” and “reshape” the feet. Good news indeed! To help this process out, similar to two years ago, each of us team members have created a special “prize” that can be won. Students buy tickets (as chances) for each of our prizes with the hopes of winning. My prize is with Wu and the winning student (and friend) will get a trip to Shenyang – free with a train ride, Western food, Starbucks and shopping. The drawing for this activity is this Wednesday at 3:45 PM. Our students are all abuzz about it.

One of the classes we taught for Sophomore Oral last week related to money. We focused on three currencies (the Euro, the US Dollar, and the Thai Baht) and talked about the symbols and meanings of the currencies in relation to the culture that it is from. We also taught some other global currency issues. This is a two-part lesson as part two is a game that I'd like to call "The UN Game".

If you've ever played "The Settlers of Catan", then you'll understand. Last year, I made a game where student groups (i.e., "countries") trade goods of Wheat, Oil and Gold worth 100, 300 and 500 Unis (the UN's currency that I made up) respectively. However, the game needed tweaking as the values were raised and lowered as needs arose and the game was poorly managed. And students were running all around the room! I tweaked much by creating several rules meant to control the game. The addition of Wood at 200 Unis and Stone at 400 Unis added a cool dimension. I then made the goal of the game to create a city in their country over a period of 7 years (i.e., rounds). Up until last year, I had never played Settlers, but, with the addition of increased Resources and city building, I knew it would be a sure win in the classroom.

What was most fun about this activity was to see their negotiations and trades. Culturally speaking, I learned much about their "Chinese" since of business and how relationships play a large part in society. In particular, I noticed how friendship was a large key that was indeed tested during the game. At one point, a student, who was not the team’s Negotiator, was sent to another “country” to request a certain good. They both happen to be the only two boys in the class, so I noticed how the sending group felt the “genderizing” of the Negotiator would make a difference. Anthony told me that the best line he heared in class was, “Get out of my country!” When I helped Wu play this game with the Education girls (42 students as opposed to the 24 in our normal classes), it was quite chaotic with screaming, running around the room, and general insaneness. I could have sworn that during the third year of negotiating, I was going to have to break up a group of chaotic Negotiators aiming for another’s country’s Resource. The game was absolute madness yet completely awesome to watch! I can’t wait until next year.

As a teacher in Siping, I have never taught class on Friday. Our school has afforded us this luxury and it is always well-received. China celebrated a holiday on Sunday which meant no classes yesterday. So Robb, Sarah, and I traveled to Shenyang (just south of Siping) for a day of fun. We had Starbucks, New York style pizza, Haagan-Daas, and McDonald's. We also went to shop at the Metro, which is a Sam's Club-type store from Germany. I can buy  El Paso flour tortillas and refried beans, Hormel ham, Land O' Lakes cheese, and corn flakes. I'm beginning to really enjoy Shenyang, especially with the fast trains to and from there. Shenyang also has a US consulate, so if I need anything US related I could get there quickly and easy.

Yesterday, the team celebrate Wu's birthday. Rach put together the theme of hot dogs, so we had chili (courtesy of me), onion strings (courtesy of Kat), potato salad (courtesy of Jennifer), hot dogs, drinks, chips and dip. Rach even put together a sampling of songs with the hot dog theme. There was even a little poster made which was absolutely hilarious - it had a dancing hot dog in a bun. Anywho, I got Wu an AWESOME gift from Thailand that totally went with the theme even though I had no idea 3 months ago. If you read this, you gotta ask him what I got him!

I guess the piracy of 1.4 Billion people+ in China has caused an illegal activity to become legal - not just legal but capitalized on. What am I talking about? Well, Google China has just released a slew (as in A LOT) of free music to download. I am talking not just domestic but foreign music from around the globe. And all of it is free! You read it right...free. Google China is hoping that revenue for this little project will be generated via ads that appear on the web pages where the music can be downloaded.

The down side? Well, you must have a Chinese IP address - that is you must logon to a computer within the Chinese mainland. I'm sure there's ways around this (and someone's probably working on that right now in Bangladesh) but for now, I'm downloading like a banshee! Click here to see the choices.