So on the day on my last class, the weather turned really cold – I guess too cold since I caught one. I have been out of commission for like three whole days. In the meantime, I slept A LOT and NyQuil has been my constant companion. Today is the first day that I’ve felt more like myself and have been ready to face the world…henceforth, the updated blog entry.

Recent news out of Taiwan reports that an earthquake on 12/26 caught major damage to underwater fiber-optic lines. These lines are pivotal to the whole of the PRC’s internet usage, especially international websites. Because of this problem, if you’ve sent email to me within the past 6 days, I’ve not yet received it nor read it. So I really don’t know when I will be able to check email. It may be until I get to Thailand in a couple of weeks. Here’s a couple of links to stories about the earthquake troubles: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-12-28T135642Z_01_SP150881_RTRUKOC_0_US-QUAKE-CABLES.xml&WTmodLoc=InternetNewsHome_C2_internetNews-3 and http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=60691. Sadly, I couldn’t see the pages fully loaded because they’re overseas websites as well. (Sigh.)

Number of views as of this blog entry: 4140.

The past week has been insane. I’ve not blogged basically any important events over the past week or so. Sadly, all I have time for are ten highlights for now:

1) Christmas was the bomb as I got Friendlies (notice I didn’t say Fuwa), Reese’s Peanut Butter cups and a Mahjong set from Jason. I don’t know how to play but I guess we’ll learn.

2) I’ve had dinner with the winning color groups from my two Sophomore Oral classes. I will have four more meals with my four Freshman Oral class color group winners.

3) I have one week until my ten days of travel to Thailand. Ahh, Thai ice teas!

4) I lost my most precious Samsung camera in a taxi. (Drat!)

5) The frog at the corner that I blogged earlier is still hanging around the mushroom trash can.

6) I met Jason’s brothers and friend this morning.

7) I have to grade 11 newspapers by today at 10 AM (and it’s now 12:18 AM).

8) It snowed two days ago and it’s been pretty chilly (about 7°C right now).

9) I received a Christmas package (on Christmas day no less!) from my mom and friends from Tulsa. Thanks for the popcorn!

10) My sister is pregnant. (Oi vay!)

Number of views as of this blog entry: 4123.

This semester is almost ended as I have finished all six of my oral class finals (2 Sophomores and 4 Freshmen). I had a total of 147 face-to-face oral finals...am I tired or what? Next week, I’ll cover the Christmas lesson for three Freshman classes and conclude the year with a party for each. It is indeed been faster this term compared to last. I am about to finish THREE terms of teaching in China – amazing!

On a different note, I now turn my attention to Thailand. I’ll have grad classes, western food, and fellowship with other teachers/friends from Vietnam, China, Mongolia, and other places in Asia. (Not to mention, some serious homework to do!) I have posted my itinerary in the lower right corner of my blog, so you can see where I’ll be from the beginning of January to roughly March. Travel, travel, travel!

Number of views as of this blog entry: 4062.

Prostitute Parade Lands Police in Hot Water (December 7, 2006, China Daily)

Local police in Shenzhen have come under fire from both the public and legal authorities after parading a group of prostitutes and their clients up and down a crowded street. However, an anonymous police official was quoted by the Guangzhou-based newspaper New Express as saying no laws had been broken with the controversial move. The controversy began last Wednesday when Shenzhen police arrested 100 prostitutes, pimps and their clients, including at least 10 Hong Kong residents, during an anti-vice bust. The officers dressed the suspects in bright yellow T-shirts and masks before parading them through on the streets. Police also read their names, ages and places of origin out to a 1000-strong crowd, who applauded the move. Despite any instant popularity the move may have generated, wide-spread media coverage has triggered a public uproar over whether the privacy and human rights of those arrested had been violated. About 70 percent of the 150,000 people who responded to a survey on sina.com said they opposed the actions taken by Shenzhen police. "These people may have done something wrong, but their dignity should have been preserved," said one netizen. However, residents from the neighborhoods near where the raid took place said they supported the police.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 4062.

The final totals are in for Sophomore Oral Class 5.1.1. First of all, here are the highest scores for the Final Oral Exam: 1^st is a Blue at 169 pts. (20 bonus); 2^nd is a Blue at 164 pts. (15 bonus); 3^rd is a Yellow at 164 pts. (10 bonus); and 4^th is a Green at 163 pts. (5 bonus). Color group averages are as follows: 1^st is Green at 145 pts. (20 bonus); 2^nd is Yellow at 143 pts. (15 bonus); 3^rd is Blue at 142 pts. (10 bonus); and 4^th is Red at 146 pts. (5 bonus). These bonuses were added with the weekly average bonus along with bonuses received from the speeches which were as follows: Yellow = 8, Red = 7, Green = 6, and Blue = 6.

So the final totals are: 4^th place is Green at 84 points; 3^rd place is Blue at 87 points; 2^nd place is Red at 90 points; and 1^st place is Yellow at 96 points. Team Yellow gets the prize of the Western Meal at Hecto. Team Yellow, give me a call so we can arrange a time to go. After Christmas will be a good time for me.

Congratulations, everybody! It was great teaching you this term.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 4038.

The final totals are in for Sophomore Oral Class 5.6.2. First of all, here are the highest scores for the Final Oral Exam: 1^st is a Red at 176 pts. (20 bonus); 2^nd is a Yellow at 171 pts. (15 bonus); 3^rd is a Green at 167 pts. (10 bonus); and 4^th is a Red at 166 pts. (5 bonus). Color group averages are as follows: 1^st is Red at 155 pts. (20 bonus); 2^nd is Green at 151 pts. (15 bonus); 3^rd is Yellow at 150 pts. (10 bonus); and 4^th is Blue at 140 pts. (5 bonus). These bonuses were added with the weekly average bonus along with bonuses received from the speeches which were as follows: Green = 11, Red = 7, Yellow = 5, and Blue = 4.

So the final totals are: 4^th place is Blue at 42 points; 3^rd place is Red at 98 points; 2^nd place is Green at 108 points; and 1^st place is Yellow at 119 points. Team Yellow gets the prize of the Western Meal at Hecto. Team Yellow, give me a call so we can arrange a time to go. After Christmas will be a good time for me.

Congratulations, everybody! It was great teaching you this term.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 4038.

It’s been a busy few days. I actually just woke up at 5 AM after going to bed around 8:30 PM. I was tiii-red. Anyway, I feel great now.

Let me start on Friday…As you know, it was by birthday. I gave a three-part, three-hours-worth of lectures to Chinese teachers on English speaking activities for second-language learners. I then got ready for a birthday party that I had with students. It was totally cas’ and I had a great time of just talking and relaxing.

On Saturday morning, I traveled up to Changchun to enjoin the Shangri-La’s international breakfast buffet. It had bacon, quiche, five different kinds of juices, bagels, sausage, simply the works. By Chinese standards, it was waaaay too expensive (RMB125), but by American standards, $15 isn’t too bad for being in China. After all, Robb and Jason split my bill, so thanks guys!

I then went around shopping for Christmas gifts, explored more of Changchun and found a Friendlies store (notice that I didn’t say Fuwa – blek!). The stores were packed as it was the last full weekend for Christmas shopping. Now mind you China is packed with people anyway; Changchun is a city of 8 to 9 million. So imagine going to the mall in America on the last Christmas shopping weekend then multiply that by 5 (the number of Chinese to one America). Yikes!

The weekend found my preparing for Finals which are this week. Yesterday, I finished two Sophomore Orals and one Freshman Oral Final. This is the last time I will have these students this year because I will not be teaching them on Christmas Day.

For Sophomore Oral students wanting to know who wins the Western Meal, I’m still calculating grades which will be posted tonight.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 4033.

Two Men Jailed for Mixing Industrial  Dye into Chilli Oil (December 7, 2006, AFP)

Two men in China who knowingly added a cancer-causing dye normally used for floor polish into their top-selling food additive have been given long jail sentences, state press reported on Thursday. Their company's product was used in a range of popular chilli oils and powders that were sold overseas as well as in China, the Xinhua news agency reported. Tan Weitang, the general manager of the Guangzhou Tianyang Foodstuffs Company in southern China, was jailed for 15 years on Wednesday, Xinhua said. His assistant, Feng Yonghua, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to Xinhua. The pair were found guilty of putting Sudan Red, a red dye normally used for colouring solvents and shoe and floor polish, into their food additive. Chilli oil and powders using their food additive were sold in at least 18 provinces in China. Food quality inspectors in Britain also detected the additive in products there last year, Xinhua said.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 4033.

About a month ago, I told my Sophomore Writing class that I would be featuring the top three journals entries on the following topic…“What customs do Chinese people have on someone’s birthday?” I told them it would be featured on my birthday (which was yesterday China time but still today US time), so here are the winning entries (verbatim).

Third Place

“In China, there are some different customs about birthday between northern and southern. I’m glad to introduce something about birthday in northern. In the birthday moring, my mother will boil some eggs for me. We call them “Lucky eggs”. Mother uses one to roll around my body. It means that I will have good luck in this year. Then I should eat the egg. And my family could eat my lucky eggs, too. Because, I hope that everyone can get much more luck.

Usually, we eat noodles on birthday. We call it “changshou mian”. we only make one line. Don’t cut off it when we eat. It means a long life especially for the old people. Today, people also eat birthday-cake. There are many kinds of cake in the shop. But, there are some different between older and younger. The birthday-cakes which give to children are small. They have beautiful ornaments, such as cartoons, animals, and pictures. The birthday-cakes which give to old people, have a big peach is made from cream. The peach means a long life, too. I want to tell one “custom” in my family. In children’s birthday, mother will accept a gift from her child. Because child’s birthday is mother’s suffering day. Child must thank mother for giving me life. At last, I want to say: Happy Birthday to you, my dear teacher.” (Ruby)

Second Place

“If Sonny chooses my journal, I will have the chance to say “Happy Birthday to you” on his blog. HAHA!

In Chinse custom, what a person will do on the birthday, teenegers and middle aged people usually don’t have a very great celebration. For the children, the parents will buy them some delicious food, sometimes a birthday cake. The most important and traditional food are eggs and noodles. The parents will roll the eggs, represent good luck will come; and the noodles represent long life. For the teenagers, besides these tradition food, eggs, noodles, most of them always have a party with their friends and classmates. Sometimes they will hold the party at home, then the parents will make a lot of delicious food for them. After, the dinner they will listen to music, sing songs, and watching TV or play games. Sometimes they will hold a party at restaurant, also most of the guests are friends and classmates.

For the mid-aged people, the form of celebration is similar to the teenagers, they may have a dinner at home or in restaurant. The differences are the people who attend the party are usually colleages, friends, and a few relations. Once they hold party, it will be more formal and more serious than the teenagers. The aged people who are on their birthday call “Shou Xing”. They have the greatest birthday celebration. On their birthday most of the Shou Xing’s children and grand children, other relations and friends will come. They bring a lot of food, presents, sometimes directly money. There will be  a lot of people so it is really a family party. Usually at mid or evening they have dinner together, it will last for several hours, and they drink a lot and say a lot of things. After the dinner, the other people will leave except the Shou Xing’s children and a few close friends. They will clean the room and then play “Ma Jong”. These are the Chinese people’s custom on their birthday party. Do these words help you know more about Chinese custom?” (Wing)

First Place

“Birthday is one of the most important days for a person, and there will be a celebration for the person. In the old period of China, when the old man is 60, 80 or more older than this, or a baby is one year old, there will be a big party to celebrate it. On the birthday, the person will receive a lot of gifts. If he is an old one, then his sons, daughters and grandchildren will kneel or bow before him, and say some blessing words such as long life, and live happily. If this is a child’s birthday, who was only one year old, his parents will show him something to see which one he will choose, if he choose a coin, it means he will be rich in the future, if he choose a pen or a paper, it means he will study well. It’s very interesting. In the past, there are many people in a Chinese family, so the birthday part usually is very cheerful. Nowdays, the Chinese people also absorb some western countries’ custom, such as eating birthday cake. And there are also some changes, the young people will no more kneel before the old one, sometimes, they are bowing instead of kneeling. The children usually take a photo on their birthday in order to memory their traces of growing. Such is something about Chinese customs on birthday, and I do hope Sonny can have a happy birthday in China.” (Shiny)

Number of views as of this blog entry: 4011.

I first noticed him on a morning walk by our campus. I have walked by him for about two weeks now. Every time I walk by him, I have noticed that he’s moved a little. First he was on the road…then he came to the side of the road…then somehow he made it over the curb and onto the sidewalk. So for about a week, he’s enjoyed a comfortable fixture near a trash dumpster that’s in the shape of a mushroom. Who is “he” you ask? Well, it’s a smashed frog.

I’m talking SMASHED flat. It looks as if he was made of air or something. So everyday that I walk to class, I noticed he was “somewhere” else. I assume people kick him or step on him (or physically move him – which is what I surely DON’T assume). Anyway, every time I walk past him, I laugh to myself. So a couple of days ago I took a picture of him – one with and without my shoe – so you can get his size (my shoes are 14). Since then, he’s been daily moving around. He’s pretty lively for being quite dead!

Number of views as of this blog entry: 3979.

For my Sophomore Writing class, I had them finish this statement, “If Sonny were a <color, food, letter>, what would he be and why?” I got some great answers. The best one is right here: “If Sonny were a letter, I think he were “X”. Because in math “X” is an unknown number. And there are a lot of things we dont know, then we also call them “X”. I think Sonny has lots of questions in heart, and he can solve a lot.” (Joy) Feel free to read the best ones at the bottom left on my blog.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 3965.

I love my students; they really crack me up sometimes. You know, I said last week that I taught a belated lesson about Thanksgiving Day. Well, we had a quiz last week and I just finished grading them all. My first question on the quiz was, “What was the name of the Indian who spoke English?” The correct answer is “Squanto” (though my standard joke was…don’t write “Sonny”). Anyway, I want to share with you the “varied” answers written on the quizzes. Here they are (with a little commentary):

13) Sq (I assume this student just couldn’t think of anymore letters); 12) & 11) Squato & Squant (wrong by one missing letter but I still gave them the points); the “Sp” family of 10) Spounds & 9) Spranto (yes, I counted these wrong); the “Sq” family of 8) Squate, 7) Squato, 6) Squavial & 5) Squasho (for the lesson, I taught them the word “squash” so I understand the possible “meshing” of “squash” and “Squanto”…and, yes, I counted these wrong, too); and 4) Puranto (I think another word “meshing” of “Puritan” and “Squanto” and wrong again).

And now <insert drum roll here> the Top Three (for creativity’s sake, I should have given points, yet I counted them wrong anyway): 3) English (hmm? Interesting answer); 2) Guratto (apparently this Indian from America actually had Italian ancestry); and 1) Spamo (I think this one is “da bomb”). I used MSN search for images of “Spamo” and below is one image I got. Man, I just love teaching!

Number of views as of this blog entry: 3953.

A student friend of mine was “shootin’ the breeze” with me and we began talking about graveyards. He started sharing with me some interesting things about Chinese culture in this area, so I asked him to write an essay about some of the things we talked about. So here it is below (verbatim). <His English is quite good, I think.>

China has a long history in dealing with the funeral, which is a part of Chinese culture and known as the Fengshui Culture. Different areas in China have their own tradition of funeral. The following is about the funeral tradition in countryside of northeast China; actually it is about the tradition in a village called Zhang Jia village Jiu Tai city Jilin province.

Public graveyard is not very popular here. All the families have their own graveyards. It is a district of tombs. If the graveyard has never been moved for several generations, it will be a lot of tombs. Choosing a graveyard is very important for the family because people believe the location of the graveyard influence a lot of fortune of the family, like property, future of the descendants and the fate of the off springs. If you choose a certain location that controls the fate of the future king, the descendant of the family is destined to the king when he was born. If the location is bad, bad luck will come to the family. And there are some people dealing with the funeral things as a career that we call Sir of Yin and Yang.

Some people died in hospital, but most died at their own house because at the end of one’s lifetime, it is better to have your relatives around and this moment your own house is the best place to choose.

Some things of the funeral such as the certain kind of clothes and the casket are prepared when the person is alive because people think the old can have it after he dies only if he saw it when he is alive. The clothes is always like winter style and should be made by the person who has both a son and a daughter, which people think it is a lucky thing and a good choice. The casket is not necessary nowadays because the government ask people to burn the dead body, but most people have one for they want a big room for their after life. The casket is made of wood. Better wood makes better casket. It’s always colored red. Some even have pictures of stories on it that is talking about the grateful son in Chinese history.

The process of the funeral is quite sophisticated.

After the person died, the family members should remember the exact time that he passes away. And then they will invite the Sir of Yin and Yang to come to arrange the following things.

According to the pass away time, the Sir will tell when to bury the body and what ceremonies should be done to pray for good luck. The schedule must be obeyed seriously.

After people decorate the inside of the casket, for instance, using the blue paper on the inside of the cover board to represent the sky, people the dead body into the casket and also put a coin into the mouth of the body to ask for wealth. The casket should be in the yard until the burial time comes. Actually the casket is not on the ground but on the four blocks that were put under the four corner of it. In front of the casket, there must be an oil light that shouldn’t be put off. People are always burning paper in a certain basin before the casket.

During the days that the casket is in the yard, there will be friends and relatives come and go. To kneel on the ground before the casket to kowtow to the dead body is polite and at the same time the son or the grandson should kowtow back to show their thanks. People who come over will bring some things, like some burn paper, paper flowers, paper cars, paper TVs and so on, which they think the dead person will have it in another world after the things are burned. All these are not necessary but a paper cow for the dead female and a paper horse for the dead male, which is bought by the son or the daughter, which people believe that the cow can drink all the dirty water that the person made when she was alive, for example, the washing water. If she doesn’t have a cow, she has to drink the dirty water by herself after she dies. The horse is for the person to ride.

During these days, before every meal, all the person with a piece of white cloth, which is called “Xiào” in Chinese and grateful in English, will go to a place where there was a temple in the past to tell the dead it is the dinner time because people believe the ghost of the dead is still there before the body is buried. Each time the daughter will cry all the way long. So if the person has no daughter, it will be more silent.

About the white cloth, there are a lot of things should be mentioned. White is the color of the funeral whereas red is the color of wedding. People who have different relationships with the dead tie the white cloth on the different part of his body. So you can judge what is the relationship between the person with white cloth and the dead, for instance, sons and daughters tie the cloth on their head with some part down to the back, sons-in-law tie the cloth around their waist while the grandchildren tie the cloth on their heads with the knots on the left if the dead is male and on the right if the dead is female and also they will have a small red ribbon on the white cloth to show it’s the grand generation. Some families will only give the relatives the cloth and some families will give all the comers the cloth.

The last supper time before the burial day is very important. All the relatives will go to the temple to see the dead off. People use a long rope to make a circle to keep the relatives inside and the crowd outside. First son-in-law or the Sir of Yin and Yang will read a document called the Way-guider license loudly, which is an article with a certain pattern to tell the ghost underground to let the dead go through without any obstacles. It is a kind of order. Second son stands high to lead the way, which is always the west direction, because the west is the paradise land in people’s mind. Third people kneel on the ground to kowtow and say what he wants about the dead person. And then burn all the paper things. Then the ceremony on the temple is over.

When people get back to the yard, a carpenter will move the cover board of the casket to let the family see the dead for the very last time. Don’t let the tears down to the body, or the dead will not be willing to leave the house. This time the family cries the most because it’s the forever goodbye to the dead. Then get the coin out from the mouth of the dead body. The coin seems to be a lucky thing to be used on the top of a new built house. Then the casket will be covered up and nailed by the carpenter.

People go back to the house to prepare for the things to be used on the burial day.
Men are divided into two groups, the digging group and the casket-lifting group. There is an exact time to start to dig and to start to move the casket and put it into the tomb hole.

At the certain time people start to move the casket. After the casket is lifted up, daughter-in-law will sit on the blocks, which was under the casket. This is called “Zuo Fu” — sit for good luck. Then there will be a son, always the eldest one, that puts the basin, which was before the casket for paper burning on his head, and then drops it. If it’s not broken, it will be kept as a lucky thing in the family then the lifting team starts to move after the son putting a paper thing on the top of his shoulder. The paper thing is made by the Sir of Yin and Yang with white paper and varies from male and female. The family can see the casket off a long way but daughters must stop before they can see the tomb hole. After people get to the graveyard, they put the oil light into the whole and then the coffin into the hole. This time will have some fireworks on. Then people buried the tomb.

After going back home, a big dinner for all the guests and the people who helped will be held. As a rule, Tofu must be one of the dishes of the meal. During the meal, the sons must kowtow to the guests room by room to thank for their help.

After the meal, the funeral is almost done. People may borrow some things during the funeral. Nothing could be for free. You must give some money to it. Even it’s a little money.

Three days later, the family will be together again to the graveyard to burn some paper and to make the tomb beautiful. And every seven-day is an important day, especially the fifth seven day rice, the 35th day. And the third year anniversary is another important day. The funeral is done here.

About the graveyard, there are a lot of rules. The tomb in the graveyard is located in a certain order, just like the family tree. The son should be underneath the father, one by one. But if one has no son, he has no right to be buried in the main part of the graveyard but must be several meters away. Nobody wants to be separated from his or her family and this is why the countryside people want a son very much. Another case for a person cannot be in the main part of the graveyard is that he died young or from other reason, like a car accident, etc

The festival for the dead here are Qing Ming, July 15th, and the spring festival.

The dead are still living their lives in another world, and we believe that.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 3937.

Here’s what’s happened in the past two hours since I blogged the whole “Team-Siping-Is-Like-Peanuts-Characters” entry: 1) Kat is upset that she was labeled Marcie; 2) Seth is vying for a name change from Pigpen to Peppermint Patty (he says he’s louder than Sarah); 3) Wu thinks the descriptions are quite accurate; 4) Sarah blogged her own “team & Peanuts characters” matching; and 5) Jason called me and said, “Who am I?” (then about 30 minutes later, he said he took two online tests that said he was either Snoopy or Linus). I have no response for 1 to 4 but I do for 5. I think Jason would be Shermy. Who’s Shermy, you ask? Exactly! (Sorry, Jason. <Hee, hee>)

Here’s the reason why directly from www.answers.com. “Shermy was an early character in the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles Schulz. Though he spoke the only line of dialogue in the first strip and was one of the strip's primary figures in its first few years, he was mainly utilized as a "straight man" [defined as “The partner in a comedy team who feeds lines to the other comedian, who then makes witty replies” per www.answers.com again] for Charlie Brown and soon began to be eclipsed by newer characters who were more developed, such as Linus and Lucy. His disappearance from the strip was even faster and more complete than those of the other early characters, Patty and Violet; as early as the late 1950s his appearances were becoming noticeably rare. Shermy's major physical characteristic was his short, dark hair, which he usually wore in a crew cut.” Wow, any resemblances?!

Number of views as of this blog entry: 3884.

So Seth and Sarah invited me out for Korean. We had some good conversations about dating, the future, and our students. The topic of team came up and we began comparing ourselves to Charles Schulz’s “Peanut” comic strip characters. After much thinking, here is where the chips fall…

Dave is Charlie Brown. Both Dave and Charlie Brown are outgoing and “fashionable”. They both worry a little but have hearts of gold. I think Dave may even own the “zig-zag” sweater.

Jeweliann is Franklin. Franklin is Charlie Brown’s best-friend and constant companion – just like Jeweliann is to Dave. Franklin always would “cut some slack” with Charlie Brown when they talked because Charlie Brown would often find the down-side of things. But Franklin was constant.

Josiah is Rerun Van Pelt. Rerun was the youngest sibling of Linus and Lucy. He always wanted to play with the older kids, but, alas, he was always too small. He was also known for having to ride in the back of a bike with his mother, which constantly scared him to death.

Small Sarah is Woodstock. Not only was Woodstock the smallest of the Peanuts characters, he was also the one who prodded constant conversation with Snoopy. Sarah is always asking questions.

Jonny is Snoopy. By far, Snoopy is the most famous of the gang. He’s also the most annoying. His imagination runs wild when he acts as “Joe Cool”, “Flashbeagle”, “Foreign Legionnaire” and “WWI Flying Ace”. That’s pretty much Jonny’s characteristics, too!

Rach is Sally Brown. As Charlie’s little sister, she knows how to get what she wants. Sally was also the one trying to constantly find ways to cut corners at school. And don’t forget Sally’s blonde hair.

Big Sarah is Peppermint Patty. Not only is Patty quite “tomboyish”, she’s also athletic and quite precocious. Patty always had extra energy especially when it came to sports. Maybe Sarah should cut back on her coffee intake. Hmmm?

Kat is Marcie. Marcie is always hanging around Peppermint Patty since they’re close buds. Marcie is also the most intelligent of all the Peanuts characters. Marcie also sucks at sports and requires Sarah’s (oops, I mean Patty’s) help all the time! Marcie is also quite innocent-looking.

Robb is the teacher. Sadly, no ones knows what the teacher looks like, but they all know the voice. Maybe the teacher is speaking “Canadian” because the Peanuts gang apparently responds in the correct manner to the instructions. Sounds hauntingly familiar, eh?

Seth is Pigpen. Not only does Pigpen make grunge quite cool, he’s also quite a mess. Due to Seth’s great “Fly-Attack-During-Class-Observation” Fiasco of 2006 (send an email to him asking about this), he’s earned the respect that comes from being “Pigpen-ish”. By the way, have you ever seen Seth’s room after the weekend?

And I, SonMan, am Lucy Van Pelt. She has such a sweet exterior…but don’t be too fooled by it. She has “quite a bite” when it comes to verbal exchanges. She also loves to set all the other characters on edge. Surely, I never saying anything that “crosses the line”?!

Number of views as of this blog entry: 3875.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 3870.

For Freshman Oral this week, I taught a lesson on Thanksgiving Day. Most of the campus had parties last week for Thanksgiving (unlike last year), but a lot of them didn’t know the true nature and history of it. I talked about the origin of the Pilgrims and Indians’ friendship, Plymouth Rock, and turkey.

One of the activities I had them do was to take the word “thankful” and find a letter that began with each of the words and was something they were thankful for. I had some really good ones that were well-thought through and poignant. Others were absolutely crazy. So I really want to share the latter ones with you.

A = Army. This group said they couldn’t think of any “a” words.

K = Knife. This group of two was thankful for the ability of a knife to cut food. Hmmm?

H = Husband. The group who came up with this one was a group of girls. When I asked them for their rationale, they responded, “We’re thankful for our future husbands.” Yes, indeed they are.

A = Adidas. This group was led by a male student who apparently loves this brand. He was happy to explain that Adidas has pretty cool clothing.

N = Nike. Again, this group was led by a guy. Nike is quite popular over here but expensive. One girl in the group screamed at me, “I love it but I can’t afford it.” The class apparently thought that statement was hilarious.

U = Unity. Many students used this word because they found it in their dictionary under “u” by really didn’t know the meaning. It was a good word to explain.

F = Failure. I was caught off guard by this one, but their explanation sufficed. This group explained that without failure they cannot learn the power of success. True, true.

U = Unhappiness. This one was strange as well, but the rationale was similar to “failure”. This group said that unhappiness leads us to appreciate the happy times. Chinese do view life issues very differently than I do.

Last, and by far the strangest, was…K = Killer. I was scared to ask about this one, but I did. The leader of this group was a girl who proudly stood up and said, “Since China has such a large population, we are thankful for the killer.” I actually started laughing when she said it because 1) it was not the response I expected, 2) she was applying the statement to government employees who help control the population but it sounded as if she was also thankful for any person who would “kill off” another person, and 3) she said it as if she just won the lottery. After I literally busted up (and doubled over), the entire class laughed. Again, there’s so much that I must learn about Chinese culture. (And, yes, I know I shouldn’t have laughed at that! Sorry.)

Number of views as of this blog entry: 3846.