Reasons I Now Look Like a Dumpling...

Since I am living in a dorm room, I do not have regular access to a kitchen. Luckily, Nanjing is full of restaurants, and as Sophie says the cheaper the place the better the food. We have been pretty good about staying away from Western food, at least for the time being.

Tiny awesome dumplings. That plate came with hot coals, you can kind of see the orangey coals burning in the bottom left of the plate. The restaurant I got these from looked so unassuming, but the food was extraordinarily good!

Across from our dorm there is a great restaurant called "Old Friend's Place." They have tasty vegetable dishes and this really cool meal where they take these sort of rice cakes and pour hot broth all over them so that they snap crackle pop like rice krispies. There is a little alleyway near our dorm that looks kind of sketchy, but it has a ton of restaurants and we're often the only Westerners there. The best place  in that alleyway is a wonton restaurant, where a giant bowl of soup with noodles and wontons is only 12 kuai ($2). We stumbled onto a tiny dumpling place about five minutes away from our dorm, where you can watch them make the dumplings in front of your eyes. They have these little pre-made dough balls that they roll out, then fill with meat or vegetables. Their hands work so fast it's mezmorizing. The entire menu is in Chinese, so Sophie and I have just been guessing at dumpling fillings, but we've never been disappointed. Nearby is Wu's Noodle Box, where they sell something called soup dumplings. A line of 10-15 people forms outside the restaurant at mealtime because these soup dumplings are amazing. They are large dumplings filled with meat, and a soupy sticky liquid. The first time I ate one I not only burned my mouth because of the boiling soup, but I also burned my face because the soup part splashed out as soon as I bit it!

The devil in dumpling form. Fried, boiling,
and you can't eat just one.

Yeah no kidding... I also just don't like the word "squirt" to describe my food. Sorry.

Across the street there is a corner outdoor bakery where they sell amazing Chinese baked goods. Lots of sesame, lots of red bean paste. I am really obsessed with this sesame pastry filled with what I believe is cornmeal. Not really sure what it is, but especially when it's warm out of the oven it tastes great.

Sesame cornmeal goodness

mmmmmmm

Speaking of which, red bean paste is a lot tastier than I thought it would be. They use it in basically all their desserts, plus my favorite breakfast meal: baozi (pronounced BOW-zuh.)

My morning baozi

Sophie and I usually eat baozi for breakfast, or an orange. It should actually be called a green though, because they are green on the outside! They're sweeter than regular oranges, and they're seedless too.

We have succumbed to Western food a few times. In China, the food is almost always really hot temperature-wise and often hot spice-wise as well. That will be fine and dandy in the wintertime, but when it's sweltering out I simply don't feel like eating spicy soup. Some of the food is so spicy my lips tingle and I've choked a few times. Delicious! There is a bakery a few stores away from our dorm that sells American-esque pastries (cheesecake, apple pie), bread, and pretty decent sandwiches. It's almost always filled with expats and it has a nice environment. I also had Sunday brunch (bacon, french toast, salad, mashed potatoes, sausage, scrambled eggs, and unlimited coffee for only 35 RMB, AKA a little under $6!) which was not bad. I tried the pizza at an Italian restaurant, but so far, not so tasty. I mostly just want to eat Chinese food right now anyway so Western food is still uncharted territory.

Chinese Chinese food and American Chinese food are pretty different, but it's hard to explain how. The food is saltier and spicier, and there is no Sesame chicken (sorry Liam.) Many desserts have taro, which is very sweet and purple. Pretty much all the noodle soups have a similar broth that's really spicy and dark colored, I'm not sure what the stock is made of though.

Yummy beef noodles

These spices are at every restaurant: spicy something and vinegar. In China, you eat dumplings with vinegar not soy sauce, and you can add the spicy stuff too (in the first picture, you can see my tiny bowl of vinegar.)
Also, the vinegar and spicy stuff can go in your soup, like the one above, if you have noodles or wontons.

The spices are totally different, but the food is really awesome. China doll is about to look less like a doll and more like a steamed dumpling with all this amazing food around!

Habitat of a China Doll

Hey all! Wanted to post some pictures of my room here in Nanjing. When I arrived it was incredibly cluttered, no one comes to clean it out or anything (although someone comes to sweep, change the sheets, empty the garbage, and clean the bathroom once a week!) but when I arrived it was filled with other people's junk. I think I've done a pretty good job of making it my own.

My room!

Bed and my China collage (in progress)

No closet is big enough for all the clothing and shoes China Doll insisted on bringing.

View of room and window #1

View of room and window #2. All of my pictures to remind me of home!

View out window #1. The sunset is amazing from this side but I've been unable to snap a good shot.

View out window #2

For my sister

Somehow I ended up with mostly pink shower accessories. Not a pink person...

One of the many canes in a room full of unexplained oddities.

I found a lot of really random stuff when I arrived. The canes. Pictures of past fellows from seven years ago. Eight skeins of yarn. Twelve frisbees. Will and Grace on VHS. And lots of expired medications and food... some of it had been expired since 2007! Ew! Why didn't anyone just throw that away?!?! You're welcome, next fellow.

I think that most universities have a hotel on their campus where foreign teachers can stay for a few nights (if it's a guest lecturer) or live. I stayed in one in Hefei, and I live in one here in Nanjing. So technically, I live in a hotel. But hotel or not, this is the home of the great and powerful China doll.

My First (and Second, and So On) Day

My first day of school. What a precious concept. I have now been teaching for a full week, and I am excited that I already recognize my students around campus and know many teachers (especially the English teachers.) I teach three "grades": five Junior I classes twice a week (total of 10), two Junior II classes once a week (total of 2) and three Senior I classes once a week (total of 3) so I teach 15 classes a week, most at 45 minutes a class. That is a lot of teaching, but luckily not too much lesson planning, of which I am already not too fond. Our class is in addition to their normal English class, so Sophie and I try to make it fun, spontaneous, and useful. We are not here to drill grammar or vocabulary, but to invite students to start speaking in a natural way.

Sophie, preparing to teach our first Junior I lesson

First day portrait

The Junior Is are by far the most excited to have foreign teachers, they are 12 through 14. They wave frantically when they see us and are always really active (and hyper-active) in class. The fact that they are so enthusiastic is a huge advantage when teaching, especially because Sophie and I plan all these crazy games for them. The biggest negative in teaching the Junior Is is their diverse skill level.  Junior I is the first grade after primary school, and students had their primary education in all different places. Some attended school in Nanjing, some in surrounding rural areas. This means that while many students speak English fairly well because they have learned it in school before, others have never spoken a word of English and don't even know the alphabet. This is a bit frustrating for me, because not only am I literally unable to translate into Chinese for them, but also because the point of this class is to only speak English! I hope the combination of complete immersion in my class plus the grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure in Chinese during their other English class should get them on track fairly soon. However, in the meantime, Sophie and I plan activities that are simple and usually require a class response instead of an individual response, because some students truly don't understand a word we say.

The Junior IIs are interesting because they are in the middle, ages 13-15. Some are excited to talk to us and some are teenagers who are totally over school and over playing juvenile games. One of our classes is really noisy and talkative (in Chinese, though) and the other class is full of silent little angels who hang on our every word. It's a funny comparison. Their English is pretty decent, and I foresee being able to have debates and discussions with them in English by the end of the year. Sophie and I are starting out slow with them though, still gauging their skill level.

I really like the Senior Is, who are 14-16 (which is great because my brother Liam is also 15!) Like Liam, many of the students are much taller than me, which is kind of intimidating. They have never had a foreign teacher before, because last year the Grinnell Corps fellows taught the Senior Is who are now Senior IIs. There is a group of them who are going to New York City in two weeks so Sophie and I hold a short "question and answer session" with them during our office hours, but their questions are basically limited to "Where do I buy Coach purse in New York?" and "How do I make American friends?" Sophie and I want to do fun things with the Senior Is like discuss short poems, have debates, and talk about American culture. I think this class will be the most fun to plan.

The other teachers at Nanda Fu Zhong are great. Since my office is very far away from the Junior I classes they always insist that I "have a rest" at their Junior I English faculty office. They offer me water, hot and lukewarm, and ensure that I'm comfortable. One of the English teachers (who I happen to like a lot) always insist I sit at this desk chair to rest as he stands and does his work on the other side of his desk, even if there are other empty desks available! I told him we should take turns standing and sitting, but he decided "it's always my turn to sit." Sometimes, the teachers offer me things that I don't want or need, but if I say no they keep insisting so I just let them do whatever they want. Whenever I seem tired, they insist of getting me more hot tea, even though it's 85 degrees outside and the hot tea just makes me MORE hot and sleepy. It's actually really nice to have a ten minute break in between classes to take notes on the class before and gather my thoughts.

In my last post about school, I mentioned the morning and afternoon exercises that seem so unusual to a foreigner. Add to the list: eye exercises. In between certain classes, the students do these little eye massage exercises. Over the loudspeaker, a voice (with calming music behind it) counts and directs the students to massage around their eyes and at the bridge of their nose. It's really great to watch. I believe it was instituted during Mao-era China and it's a vestige that has remained into today. It is supposed to improve the students' eyesight... and most people believe it truly works. When I told a teacher that we don't do eye exercises in America, she seemed kind of confused. But she later figured it out: as an American, I don't need eye exercises because my eyes are naturally very good, given that I don't wear glasses (she doesn't know that I wear them for reading but...) Since the students have their eyes closed and they think no one is watching, I once saw a kid stick his fingers all the way up his nose and massage that for awhile. I mean, I guess students also need to improve their olfactory senses during class as well.

Yesterday, Sophie and I read a speech in front of the whole school, to thank them for allowing us to teach here. I was supposed to do a speech in Chinese, but I asked Fang Laoshi if I could stick to English... a decision I did not regret one bit. Before the meeting, a bunch of Senior I boys in camo hoisted the Chinese flag while the students stood at attention. Apparently, the summer before Senior I year all students have to attend a week or two of military training to entice them to join the army after they graduate. During the Monday morning announcements, all of the kids have to stand, whereas I feel like in the states it is compulsory that students be able to sit. Such a different mindset.

This week, Sophie and I are teaching Junior Is about items in the classroom. Junior IIs and Senior Is are learning about shopping, because Senior Is have a textbook we are supposed to use. The textbook is infuriating because there are so many mistakes, but we will make it work.

I guess China Doll is officially a teacher now. Crazy!!!

A Doll's First Banquet

China doll had quite an adventure last Friday. We arrived after school at 4 PM for the faculty performance. It seemed like most of the teachers did at least one act, mostly singing Chinese songs. One group did a "hip-hop" dance (I put that in quotes because it was pretty clear that only one of the teachers could actually pop and lock, the others did moves behind him) and another couple tangoed! It took us a good hour before Sophie and I realized we were actually the guests of honor at this performance. I should have realized it when they moved us from a side seat to front row center, and because they introduced us at the beginning of the show and we had to stand up and wave. Some of the acts were kind of confusing, but I have realized: that's just how's it's going to be for the year. Sometimes, things will just be weird and confusing but that's part of the fun!

Sophie and I had a fanclub of girls who ran up to the front during the performance and sat with us. They didn't speak any English, but one girl kept repeating "Hello, what is your name." Because students are mostly taught through scripted dialogues, she was baffled when I replied and couldn't say anything else. We were all able to communicate through the language of funny faces.

Our own performance went totally well. They were excited to hear us sing in English, but we got uproarious applause when we sang in Chinese. The little girls brought us flowers after our performance, but apparently here those aren't for keeps. They keep a supply of plastic flowers to give out at certain performances, which you then give back before you leave. Confusing, yet again.

Afterward, we walked from the school to the restaurant for the banquet. At a banquet, seating is very important. Where you sit determines how important or powerful you are, and so the seating was pretty particular. Since apparently Sophie and I were still the guests of honor, we got to sit with the principal, the dean, and all of the vice principals! Our table was the biggest, and we had a lovely bouquet of flowers. 

It is also a tradition in China to toast people at the banquet, but it's not of the clink your glass and toast the room variety. You have to stand up and toast a specific person, and have a small discussion with them. It's also protocol to "return" toasts, so every time we were toasted, a few minutes later we had to go and toast them back. You must keep your glass lower than the person you toast. You must clink glasses multiple times throughout the toast. Plus, you toast to thank them for anything they have done for you and anything they plan to do for you. Because of this, Sophie and I had to toast every single teacher in the room, who probably will help us at different points, plus everyone wanted to toast US because we were the guests of honor. It was a lot of standing around and smiling while Fang Laoshi (our Chinese caretaker here and English teacher extraordinaire) gave our toasts for us in Chinese. All I can say is that opting not to drink alcohol from the start was a really good idea, I would have been on the floor drunk. However, the drink they did give us was Chinese orange juice, which is sweeter than tang and pulpier than anything I've ever had in the states and I was pretty nauseous by the end of the dinner simply from drinking four large glasses of that treacle liquid.

Me, Fang Laoshi, and Sophie at the banquet

Today, Sophie and I went to the Confucius Temple with our Chinese tutors. In ancient times, it is where men would take their tests to become officials in the government, but now it's a shopping market. There are tons of trinkets and souvenirs, so I will definitely be going back. There is a river than runs through, we took a boat tour of the area; many of the buildings are still around from ancient times! At night, the whole places lights up with lanterns (especially for the spring lantern festival), which is yet another reason to go back, this time at night. China doll finally got to see some ancient China!

Sophie and our two Chinese tutors at the Confu Temple

Cool Chinese building on our boat tour

Back to School

Sophie and I will be teaching at Nanda Fu Zhong, the number eleven school in Nanjing. Although we were told we would have to start teaching this week, much to our relief the principal decided to let us observe some English classes this week instead. Our first day was spent meeting the officals of the school: the principal, the dean of students, the vice principals. Everyone was very nice to us. They told us how lucky they were to have foreign teachers and, the always pleasant compliment of how we are so beautiful. The principal even invited us to make a speech at the school ceremony on Monday. One in English, one in Chinese. I turned purple. I wrote out a few sentences and my tutor translated them for me into pinyin... we will see how that goes. I know literally zero Chinese and was asked to speak it in front of thousands of people. Even though I've done hundreds of performances, if there was ever a time to imagine everyone in their underwear I think this is it.

The kids seriously stare at us at the school, moreso than anywhere else. Imagine "that" high school movie, one in which someone does something embarassing and the camera pans around the school as cliques whisper and point and giggle. That was my life. Huddled masses of kids would point and yell "hi" then go back to their friends and laugh about it. I felt like a high school geek getting picked on!

While observing the Chinese classes it became obvious how different they are from schools in the States. I learned about the major differences during the TEFL course, but they still kind of caught me off guard. First of all, students usually don't volunteer answers, the teacher calls on them and they stand up to recite the answer. In fact, they have to remain standing until the teacher allows them to sit. And the way they learn English is more rote memorization than I ever imagined. Students are usually given a script, which they then have to memorize and perform word for word in front of the class. You can see the student wince if they say "it's nice to meet you" instead of "it is nice to meet you." That is where my teaching will come in. I will have to make it very clear that I will accept synonmymns and encourage a more natural way of speaking. It also struck me how the teachers are often working with textbooks that teach awkward English phrasing and vocabulary. In one class, they use a textbook that centers around two dogs, Eddie and Hobo (first of all, those names, what?) Hobo is a robot dog, or, as the textbook calls him an "e-dog." Is that like an email? An e-dog? Now there is a generation of Chinese students who think an e-dog is a real thing. There is nothing incorrect about it, it's just awkward for a native speaker.

It also became apparent to me how different the ideology can be here. In one class, students were brainstorming a list of qualities they want in a teacher. The teacher suggested, "beautiful" and "lovely," as in their appearance. I feel like in America that would not be an OK thing to say, because we like to pretend we accept everyone, no matter how they look. Their list was prioritized in a different way than would a list compiled in an American elementary school. The top of the list was "honest," "clever," and "beautiful." The teacher also talked a lot about how important it is to make your parents happy by doing well in school.

Even though past fellows have warned us that the student don't really take our course seriously (since it does not go on their final transcript, and the "final grade" matters a lot in China) the students seem really excited that we are here. The Junior Is (who are aged 13-14) were so excited to talk with us after class. Two girls came up to us with pens and paper and I seriously thought they were going to ask us for our autograph, but it turns out they wanted us to write down our names because they wanted to add us on queque (it's a Chinese instant messaging website. EVERYONE HAS A QUEQUE HERE, I CANNOT EXPLAIN WHY) When they had to recite their memorize dialogues in front of the class, they all acted it out in great ways! I'm a little concerned though, because some Junior Is never learned English in their primary school while some speak very well. It's a difficult gap to bridge. Junior IIs seems to speak well, but are a little too cool for school. The Senior Is are fairly fluent. In the class we obseved, they were learning how to skim passages, so they must be pretty proficient. It's weird to think that they are the same age as my little brother, who is more like a peer to me.

The best part of observing classes, though, is walking in during the "exercise" portion, which is different from PE. The kids get in giant lines on the school track and over the loud speaker, music plays and a voice rings out instructions: left leg, right leg, arm circles. They basically do a little line dance. Every day. It's super communist looking: lines of people doing the same thing at the same time while a voice tells them what to do over a loudspeaker. Fascinating.

Tomorrow, Sophie and I are attending our first banquet. A banquet is a fancy dinner party: lots of rules to observe. It's a cultural norm to have little performances, no matter how bad of a singer or dancer you are, so Sophie and I got roped into performing. That wasn't so bad: we are rocking a solid a capella version of "This Land is Your Land." Of course, that wasn't enough. We are now also singing "Du mian de nu hai kan guo lai" and yes, that is also in Chinese. In front of the entire senior middle school staff. Will let you know how that goes as well... China girl ready for some self-deprecating fun!

KTV and being a star

Those of you who have ever spoken more than five words to me know that I love to sing, no matter if the occasion is appropriate or not. Luckily, the Chinese love KTV, also known as karaoke. In China, you and your friends rent a KTV room that looks like a luxury suite with a giant TV. You sing privately with your friends for as long as you're willing to pay. Many KTV places will serve drinks or food. Apparently, many KTV places also serve... female entertainers. That is the nicest way to put it. Men can pay for attractive women to sing and dance for them in the karaoke rooms. Some boys in my teaching program are living in a hotel that has KTV on a separate floor, and as we went to see about getting a room a heavy-set man and Barbie doll girl in sky high heels past us by. One guy nonchalantly mentioned, "That's the pimp that works at this hotel."

We ended up going to another KTV place, not the one in their hotel (they are everywhere and that one was ridiculously expensive, probably because of the whole "women on display as entertainment" thing.) I learned that KTV is pretty awesome. They all have a large selection of English songs, although some are pretty random. Also, probably for legal reasons or perhaps just because China is filled with things that make no sense to me, many of the songs didn't use the original music video. Sophie sang a Dido song and the video looked like a tourist advertisement for Sweden. Another friend sang something Mariah Carey and it was a weird movie where a girl looked sad and walked around a swingset. So strange! But singing was incredibly fun. The staff was really excited that foreigners wanted to do KTV at their establishment. They gave us a "foreign discount" and before we left, they took turns taking pictures with us, passing their iPhones from photographer to photographer. We were such a novelty.

Before leaving for China, I was forewarned that foreigners fascinate Chinese people, but I never really believed it. In China, American movies and TV shows are so pervasive, the population has seen white people before. But I guess we just are so unusual here that we become a spectacle, performers in a freak show. In Nanjing, people stare. People pass us and yell "hello," and little kids point to us and giggle. People of all ages and genders tell us how beautiful we are (OK, that one I definitely like.) Especially in a city like Hefei that doesn't see a lot of tourists, we really stick out. I do not think I have ever walked into a restaurant and felt all eyes resting on my group and me. And when someone stares at you, you naturally keep glancing at them. It becomes this weird interaction. The staring and pointing really does make me feel like a movie star sometimes. Other times, I'm just wondering what people think when they pass me on the street. Lots of people ask us why we're here (usually in Chinese, answered by my trusty bilingual friends.) It's fairly disconcerting, but I'm sure it won't be on my mind as much later in the year. Sometimes it will be awesome (discounts! compliments! friends!) and sometimes it will be terrible (awkward! rip-offs! random creepy people trying to speak English with me!) but hey, it's life in China. And this China doll can deal with being a star, for now.