To Boston, With Love

One of the strangest things about living in China is hearing about American domestic news. The time difference is such that I find out about an event as soon as I wake up, but am unable to get more information throughout the late morning and afternoon, since it is late evening/very early morning EST and reporters are done for the day. I counted down the minutes at school until I could rush home and check to see what areas of the east coast were devastated by Hurricane Sandy, since my internet at school wasn't working. Sophie and I refreshed and refreshed and refreshed current events websites waiting for the election results during our lunch break. The bombings in Boston were no different.

The night before our class, (so the morning of the Boston marathon) Sophie and I were wracking our brains, wondering what we should do with our seniors this week. Our lesson planning time has become shorter and shorter as we've become better teachers, or perhaps as we've gotten more apathetic (I choose the former.) Our friend Liz was waiting to hang out with us after we were done. We had started a few weeks ago on the topic of "cities." First, we did the history and music of NYC (thanks to Sinatra and Jay-Z, for making guest appearances.) Then we asked them to tell us about the pros and cons of living in Nanjing. Later, we asked them to create a perfect city. 

"I taught them the word utopia last week, what if we did something with that?" I offered haphazardly. No bad ideas in brainstorming. 

"Too hard," said Sophie. "We did perfect city, what about perfect world?" 

"We could play them Imagine by John Lennon," I suggested; our younger kids were learning "Yellow Submarine." 

"They can discuss what is wrong with the world and how to improve it." said Sophie. Thus, our lesson was born.

The next morning, I read about the bombs. I felt numb. I have family and friends in Boston. I've thought about living in Boston. I have such happy memories there. What could have possibly happened? But I had no time to research, as class was about to start.

The class went over pretty well. China has different laws and therefore different conceptions about violence: no ordinary citizens own guns or bomb making equipment (legally.) There are issues with knife violence, but Chinese people simply don't worry about terrorism in the same way Americans do, for plenty of reasons that are both related and unrelated to gun control. But hearing my students realize on their own that a world in which weapons were banned, a world in which starving children had enough food to eat, and a world in which discrimination  (I had to teach them this word) ceased to exist was a world we could work together to create, was really uplifting.

I had my entire class sing "Imagine" that day. Hearing them sing made me feel more at ease. The other Chinese English teachers said that the students rarely have opportunities to discuss the current world in which we live. The teachers asked for our lesson plan, so that they could repeat the lesson in future years. Not only was that a huge compliment, but I hope they really do continue to teach current events. I never realized that something so vital to my education was not integrated into the Chinese system. I really do hope the teachers use this lesson next year, because the only way to improve the world is to first acknowledge that there are problems that need fixing.

Number 3

If you want to see a truly heinous picture and read some adequate prose, check out my third quarterly Grinnell Corps Report:

Briel's 3rd Grinnell Corps Report

I had a lot of trouble writing this report, which is odd because writing these blog posts (when I actually get around to writing them) flows so naturally. I can't believe I only have one quarterly report left before my time with Grinnell Corps is over... so crazy. Enjoy!

"What Should We Call Me?" Awards

This semester, I have 425 students, each with their own special and unique name. Or not, if their name is Lily. I have sixteen students named Lily. In this blog post, each name will fight to death to be known as the best (or worst) of their nomenclature.

Athletes 
(we're counting pro-wrestlers as athletes, by the way...)
Randy Orton, CM Punk, Kobe, Lebron James, Iverson, The Rock, Cena, Undertaker Triple H

Winner: Undertaker Triple H. Imagine me saying, "Ok, so, what is the conflict of this story? Anyone? Anyone? Undertaker Triple H?"

Apparently Undertaker Triple H is a combination of the names of these two wrestlers.
Incidentally, the gentleman on the left was the star of my latest nightmare.

Definitely Boys Names
Peach, Stunning, Goldust, Bright, Rainbow

Winner: Goldust. Not a real word, which is interesting because he's one of my most well-spoken students.

Country Club Members
Scofield, Bond, Winston, Hunter

Winner: Winston.

That Thing That Explains the Science in a Sci-Fi movie
Protoss Judicator YZF, Maxime Testard, Quentun Stark

Winner: Protoss Judicator YZF, although I call him YZF for short. "The inter-dimensional time portal is being altered by the Protoss Judicator YZF... better adjust the Quentun Stark and resume the hyper-connection in the Maxime Testard!"

Duets 
(kids who sit next to each other in class)
Wendy + Wency, Apple + Jax, Jas + Aum, Zoro + Sparta, Mike H + Mike L, Angelica + Cynthia (SHE'S A REALLY COOL DANCER!) Water Z. and Water W. (not typos, they're both named Water. Both. Named. Water.)

Winner: Apple + Jax. The two Mikes came in a close second, because they're both insanely tiny and don't speak any English, but that's more of a joke for me. Apple Jax is better.

Hey, these don't taste like apples!

Well, That's a Word...
Burrows, Demon, Tyrant, Echo, Sirius, Leisurely, Tank

Winner: Demon. The first day of class, I asked if she knew what the word meant. She recited a dictionary-perfect definition. Demon, OK then.

Random Letters Put Together Randomly
(Male Category)
Zomber, Catschen, Tenimpelia, Elic, Parkel, Airloy, Gank, Rance, Foren, Saxia, Relouis

Winner: Tenimpelia. Seriously... where did that come from? Lucky for Tenimpelia, I can't pronounce his name so I never call on him in class.

Random Letters Put Together Randomly
(Female category)
Prayal, Berya, Misaya, Vlinn, Lintu (Grey Dante), Marman

Winner: Lintu (AKA Gret Dante). Lintu destroyed the name card that the students keep on their desks (come on guys, 425 students, I need those damn name cards) and so I insisted she make a new one. Instead of writing her name "Lintu" she wrote "Grey Dante" which makes her name doubly strange. Annoyed, I insisted she go by Lintu. These kids love changing their names on me, it's highly unfair! I actually remembered her name was Lintu! I should get some credit for that! You also may remember her from the infamous "Her Name is Rio" scandal.

Other
Eagle, Panda, JK Rowling, Herbert

Winner: Herbert. I mean, clearly.

The best part of this funny names ordeal is that many of these students are the best at English in their class. So even though their English is really great, they still chose these bizarre names. With over 400 students, the students with stranger names are easier for me to remember.