Retrospect

"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." -Soren Kierkegaard

I first heard that quote when I was ten years old, but it's stuck with me all these years. When I think back to where I was one year ago today, five years ago today, ten years ago today, it's hard to believe I am where I am. However, it also makes a lot of sense. I can't decide whether it's easier for me to count the ways I've changed over the past year or to count the ways I've stayed the same. I have done a lot of both. All I know is that it will be even easier to look back once another year has gone. At this point, I'm still unable to process these past few months

But for the sake of my dear readers, I'll give it a shot!

The most obvious thing I think I've gained this year, other than PERSPECTIVE! and CHINESE LANGUAGE SKILLS! and WORLDLINESS! is patience. Patience is a virtue with which I've never particularly struggled, but I didn't realize how impatient I was until I got to China. The reason I never perceived impatience as one of my (many) personality quirks is because I'm not impatient about when a movie will come out or when the cake will be done baking or when the iPhone 12 comes out. I'm impatient about my future. I'm always fussing about what I'll be doing next, making to-do lists in my head, worrying about this summer, next year, five years from now, ten years from now. I'm always worrying about being on time, so I get impatient and I leave my house way earlier than necessary. I'm terrible about stopping, and don't even get me started on smelling the roses. China has made me more patient because things aren't as planned out as I want them to be. I have to wait to find out when my vacations day are, what classes I'm teaching next year, and where I will be living. It requires a certain element of flying by the seat of my pants that I did not possess upon arrival. China has made me an incredibly patient person.

Patience also comes from being a teacher. Teaching the same lessons over and over again requires patience. Students who are struggling require patience. Students who send you 3-4 emails a day with questions require patience. Patience is a teacher's best and most-utilized tool.

And of course, language barriers always require patience, as does living in an environment in which the people have vastly different beliefs on matters I consider to be incredibly important, like gender, freedom, and race. China requires patience in all kinds of situations, which is something I expected, but could never really comprehended until I was actually here.

In retrospect, I'm happy with my time here and I'm really excited to come back to China for another year. However, I am also thrilled that I'll be home in the US so soon! China Doll lands at LGA this Saturday night. At that point, this blog will (understandably) go on hiatus, until I can start blogging about my return. So don't forget about me, dear readers! China Doll'll be back real soon!!!!!

When You're 23...

My birthday in China was totally awesome. Even though the rainy weather ruined my plans to go to Xuanwu Lake, I still had a wonderful day. I got a great massage then went out to dinner at an amazing Italian restaurant (I would argue it’s the best Western restaurant in Nanjing) and the owner gave us free champagne. Afterward, we did KTV karaoke and I may or may not have come home close to sunrise. Of course, we sang “What’s My Age Again?” by Blink 182… nobody likes you when you’re 23… I hope that’s not true.

Natalie and Lela

Singing "Lady Marmalade"

I'm not a huge impulse buyer (except when it comes to clothes, of course) but my friend has a Polaroid camera and it's awesome so... I bought myself one!

Champagne

Drake and Liz at KTV

Somehow many of my students learned it was my birthday, so they were sweet and gave me cards and one even gave me a little gift! It's a little stuffed animal keychain. She told me it was named "number 7" (七号) because it's from a cartoon TV show? Whatever. It was so sweet.

The Monday after my birthday, the officials at NDFZ had a fancy going away/birthday lunch for me (and Sophie.) Fang Laoshi bought me an enormous, extremely heavy cake. How do I know it’s so heavy? Because I held it for what felt like hours through all the ceremonial pictures that were taken after I blew out the candles.

The cake

All I wanted was one picture!

Then we took a thousand

Then a vice principal thought this background would be nicer
(me and my tutor)

My cheeks (face-cheeks, of course) were a lot of pain

Cake and crayfish, a delicious combination!
Not.

The meal was incredibly delicious, and since Sophie and I were the guests of honor, food kept magically appearing on our plates as the officials kept encouraging us to eat more. This became a problem at the end of the meal (after the cake) when the final “soup” came out (sometimes its noodle soup, I’ve also had mushroom soup.) At first, the waitresses passed by me and gave the small noodle bowls to everyone else. I breathed a sigh of relief. Little did I know that I had been passed over because I was getting a giant bowl of “long life” noodles, a Chinese tradition in which the birthday girl or boy finishes a large bowl of noodles so that they can live a long and healthy life. I only at a few of my noodles, I hope that’s not a bad omen!

Long life noodles

Our banquet table

Me, Fang Laoshi, Sophie

In China, newborns are considered to be 1 years old, so technically by Chinese standards I’m 24. So, a very Happy 23^rd/24^th Birthday to me!

Can Someone Explain Why...

... Dawei (David) is going to buy a sweater at the Playboy store?

大卫要买一件毛衣

That 售货员 knows how it is. What is up with my Chinese textbook?

Bonus photo:

Qi Laoshi and me, last day of class

Right after this photo was taken, her adorable son busted into the classroom on a tricycle. 我是一个好学生！

Rise and Shine (and more adorable stories)

I cannot believe I have yet to mention the English training center, RISE, where I have been working since December. Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I think small children are cuter than anything in the world (yes, even cuter than cats or sloths) and they, inexplicably, love me... even when we don't speak the same language!

Working at RISE has been really fun. I regularly co-teach two classes a week, but I also serve as the guest foreign teacher for different classes throughout the month. As I understand it, parents can sign their children up for classes with the foreign teacher every week, or with Chinese teachers that have a "guest foreign teacher" once or twice a month.

Being the guest teacher is a little stressful because I never know what we're doing. Lesson planning is not part of the gig, as I understand it, although I think some teachers believe differently. The full time teacher usually prepares something for me to do with them, for little kids it's learning letters or numbers for older kids it's anything from reading a book to learning about exotic animals. However, there are a few occasions when they gave me something totally above the head of my students, and that's hard to handle. One time I came in and they asked me to use a complex powerpoint about Easter (that said things like "This is the day on which Christ has risen") to teach 3 year olds who barely know their own name, one of whom (aptly named Miffy) who is so deathly afraid of me and my unintelligible language that she cries when I walk in the room.

Every week, I teach two English classes with the same teacher, and she's awesome. Since I've worked there for so many months now, I know the schedule well. I come in and the kids are watching a cartoon for their ten minute break. It would make sense for them to watch a cartoon in English, but for some reason the kids at RISE almost exclusively watch "Tom and Jerry" (no language required) or Dora the Explorer (which is partly in... Spanish.) I hang out with them for a few minutes, before we start the lesson. I come in after they have already been in class for an hour, so we use this time to review. They can choose "Worker Bee House" which involves doing a worksheet or "Word Found House" (which for the longest time I thought was called "Word Fun House," like a carnival funhouse or something) where they use small laminated paper with cutout letters to spell words that they've learned. Afterward, we play a review game (which I am often learning alongside them) and then we sing the good-bye song. The good-bye song is obnoxious and catchy and I hate it and I love it.

Of course, now that I'm leaving for the summer, I finally feel like I got the hang of working at Rise. Good thing I plan on coming back when I return to China! I like working there because I think the other teachers are great and because the kids are so completely adorable. But don't take my word for it! Here is solid, irrefutable proof that these kids are the funniest little rascals... ever.

Fanny. Doesn't speak English. Doesn't matter.

It's important to learn about patterns!

Coco. She has the highest cutest voice ever!

Leo. Extremely misbehaved, but still cute.

Typical Chinese children's poses.

Blurry, but you get the picture!

Bob. That's all.

I thought Jerry wanted to take a selfie with me (I see parents do it with their kids all the time) because he kept trying to kiss me. I then realized he was actually trying to transfer the chewed donut from his mouth into mine.
Ew.

I tried to get a picture of Neil smiling, because
he is possibly the cutest child in the entire world.
But he is extremely camera shy.

Personality shot? From left: Apple is distracted, poor Eva is eclipsed by Apple even though Eva is the bomb.com, Bob, Charles, and Neil are being goofy, Jerry has a great idea, and I'm in the back just grinning because I have no idea WTF is going on.

In other adorable news, my high school students just did their final oral exams for my class. For the younger kids, their spoken exam was an edited version of "Show and Tell." It was a great experience because a) I got to grade them on their spoken English rather than their written English and b) some of them brought in the cutest things. Chinese teenagers are so different than American teenagers because they have different perceptions of what is "cool" or "uncool." I would say 75% of my students brought in toy stuffed animals for "Show and Tell," likely because they still play with them and think they're cute at age 15. I was so disappointed when my students forgot to bring something from home and instead shared their white out tape or bike keys, claiming it had sentimental value, but most of my kids went above and beyond and I got to learn more about them!

Yesterday was my last day at Rise, today is my last day of Chinese class, and next week is my last full week of class. On the one hand, things feel like they're wrapping up because I go home soon, but on the other hand, I'm coming back... so I'm not too sad. More as this story develops...

Her Name is Rio...

The students in my first class of the morning were running a little late. They are getting busier as the semester comes to a close. One student slipped in right as the late bell rang, huffing and puffing after the five flight sprint to my classroom. She took a big swig of her neon blue drink, clearly emblazoned with the "Rio" logo on the front. It could have been an ad on TV.

Mmm. A Rio. I thought. Those Rio drinks are delicious. I'm so thirsty... I could use a Rio right now! The blue ones are too sweet, but the lemon ones are great. It would be awesome to have a cold drink right now, I wonder why I never thought to bring a Rio to class...

And then I realized. Duh. I never bring a Rio to class because they're alcoholic. And what kind of person brings an alcoholic drink to a school?

While the students took a few minutes to write down some conversational points for a discussion, I walked around the room checking their work. I stopped at her desk and read the label on the back of her drink. I was right: 4.9% Alcohol. She looked up at me and said, "Juice." I looked down at her and said, "Not juice..."

During the class discussion, I could see her and her friends crowding around the bottle. I realized I probably should have waited until after class, I was just so confused and shocked to see an alcoholic drink in my classroom. When class was over, I asked her to stay later. She knew why. As soon as everyone was gone, she pointed to the label,

"Teacher, it says a fruit punch juice and spirits blend on the front. See? Juice!"

"Spirits is an English word for alcohol."

"Oh."

"See here? It says 4.9% ALC. 酒..." I said in what (probably) was Chinese, hoping she got the picture. "Just don't bring it to my class again, OK?" I asked.

"Yes, teacher." She answer.

What boggles my mind is that this girl, in her NDFZ uniform, bought a drink clearly from the alcohol shelf (at least, in my grocery stores that is where it is) and no one thought twice. Obviously, alcohol regulations aren't as strict... anywhere... compared to America, but still. In her uniform!

When I recounted this story to other people in China, both foreign and native Chinese, no one seemed fazed. I guess this happens all the time, since the age-limit isn't strictly adhered to and because a lot of those drinks are brightly colored and look kid-friendly. But considering that this girl is tiny, I imagine a 4.9% alcohol content would make her feel a little tipsy or sleepy.
So anyway, that happened. My TEFL training definitely did not prepare me for that one...

Great News!

Hello passionate fans and occasional readers! I have great news! There will be lots of exclamation points in the following post!

First piece of great news: I will be coming back to America for the summer. I have an internship in NYC with Sweet Generation, a bakery that generates profit to increase access to arts education for children. I will be their Social Media Strategist, so you can continue following my witty remarks on their website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and their soon-to-be Pinterest. 

Coming home means I can see my family and friends sooner than anticipated. I'm really looking forward to weekend trips so that I can visit people... people mainly being BABY ISIS, who was born while I was in China. I think it will be great to re-charge and spend some time at home. By the time I arrive in the US in mid-June, I will have been gone for almost ten months! Crazy!

Second piece of great news: I have been hired by Hohai University in Nanjing as an oral English professor, so I will be heading back to China in September! I am really excited to teach older students, continue my Chinese lessons, and see more of the country. But more importantly, the China Doll blog will live on for another year!

I've done close to fifty posts this year and have had over 3,000 visits to my blog. I am so proud and excited to continue writing next year. Of course, there is still more to come in the next month as I finish my year with Grinnell Corps, but I am already looking forward to sharing my everyday life, stories, and adventures in the coming year.

China Doll - ONE MORE YEAR! ONE MORE YEAR!

我媽媽 - Nanjing Edition

Showing my mom around Nanjing was really, really incredible. We mostly just walked around so that I could show are all the places I go, things I do, and sites I see. I think she wasn't prepared to like Nanjing as much as she did! I was sad to see her go...

Selfie Nanjing University

Confucius Temple

OK so, who's next?