The life of a Chinese student at No. 7 Middle School

Wake up in the school dorms at 5:45 AM to the sound of Chinese music blaring over the big speakers. Each room that the students live in has 4 bunk beds and sometimes a single as well, meaning there can be up to 9 middle schoolers living in one room. (Ah!) Of course, they are gender separated. Breakfast is from 6:30AM-7AM and cleaning the school is from 7AM-right before class starts at 7:30AM. Classes are 45 minutes long, and include Chinese, English, math, calligraphy, art,  music, physical education and more that I don't know of. (I just realized a few days ago that students practice their big horned instruments in their dorms. Up until then, I always thought the students were constantly rearranging their rooms and the loud noises were from the beds screeching against the floor. But as usual, my ignorance makes for a good laugh.) I have noticed teachers out on the field running around the track with their students during PE. This is much different than home because usually that is the time that teachers have their planning time. But then again, I really don't know when these teachers plan their lessons because their days are so long.

Flag raising is around 7:10AM when I am walking to get my bike to ride to No. 11 Middle School. Everyone stops in their tracks and watches as the flag is raised outside on the field. It's always a beautiful way to start my day.

Lunch time is at 12PM and the Chinese song signals when class is over. On the way to lunch, which the whole school has at the same time, Kenny G is played over loud speakers.  It's interesting and a little odd choice of music to me but I guess it does relax me when I hear it, and that may be their point.

For lunch, the students are allowed to choose between cup noodles and eating what the cafeteria ladies have prepared. I think about 85% of the students eat cafeteria food (which is pretty good btw) and the others eat cup noodles. Also, many of them eat Chinese hot dogs (not the same as American ones) and fried chicken. I'm not sure if that is all they eat for lunch, but I see many many kids eat them everyday. Also, when possible, most people choose to use a big soup spoon rather than chopsticks during meals. I have noticed this and have done the same. I am proud to say that I am now not the slowest eater. :) After lunch they have until 1:30PM (I think) until they must go back for classes.

Afternoon classes run until 5:30PM, when they break for dinner. I'm not quite sure when night classes begin but I think they are around 6:30PM-7PM and last until 9PM. When I go back to the dorms before school gets out I find myself forgetting that the students are still in school and I think they are just asleep. But every night at around 9:03PM I hear roars of laughter and kids screaming in the pitch dark because they haven't installed lighting yet outside. This is especially scary when the kids are still in class and you walk back to the dorms in the pitch dark and silence. Thankfully my mom gave me a flashlight, just in case. :)

Weekend in Beijing at my sister's house!

Saturday morning I left my beloved Yanqing to venture to Beijing for the first time since I arrived in China. Since I don't know my way around the transportation system here, my roommate graciously offered to go with me my first time and when we got to Beijing she would stay with her brother while I would stay with my sister. We first took a taxi to the bus station, which is 5 yuan. Actually it is 5 yuan wherever you go in Yanqing which is really nice. I think I already explained this in a previous post, but as a refresher course, one US dollar is equivalent to 6.6667 yuan. So not too shabby to go anywhere in Yanqing for less than a dollar. Of course, once you buy a bike, it's always free after that. :) Anyway, so once we got to the bus station I found out that you can take any bus at that station and it will go to Beijing. I guess each bus station goes to a different area, which makes it much easier for me to do myself. The bus I need to take to Beijing is 919 and any 919 will do. After about an hour and a half of riding the bus, we finally arrived in Beijing, only to find that all the cabs around us have people in them because it is rush hour. So after about 20 minutes of standing, walking to a new area to wait some more, we finally found a cab. I arrived at my sisters place about two and a half hours after leaving Yanqing--not the easiest and most convenient trip. But once I walked into her home, it was so amazing. I realized that she had a toilet, a shower, and a huge king size bed for me to sleep on, and last but not least, I could order pizza! It was like heaven. I felt like a kid in a candy store. It's crazy how much you miss the little things when you are living in a new country. I am just so thankful I have my sister and rob (the husband) to look after me and be there for me. They have really made this trip and transition that much easier on me, and because I know my sister is one of the few people that read my blog, I would just like to thank her directly. Sarah, you mean so much to me and I really don't know what I would do here without your love and support. I know you tear up really easily, and just thinking about it makes me tear up too. But they are happy tears because of you. 

Anyway, enough with the mussy stuff. So we ordered pizza and pasta and got massages together. It was really nice. Then we went to Rob and Sarah's friends house for a party that had really amazing Moroccan food. There was a lot of meatballs and sausage so I was really happy. Anytime there is meat I am really happy. 

Observation: The Chinese here do not like to make plans. I am struggling with this because at home it is all I do with my friends. Here, people just tell me to wait for them to call me, which is annoying because then I can't do anything all day because I have to wait for their call. I mean I guess I don't really have anything to do all day except teach and eat, but still, its frustrating because I can't do laundry (by hand may I add) or take a nap without being paranoid that I will have to leave at any moment. They also do not like waiting. I mean no one likes to wait, but they expect you to be ready whenever they call, which is hard and inconvenient. This is why I like to know when you would like to see me or give me a time when you would like to leave. But of course, this is not how they do things here. 

So the reason I bring up the making plans issue is because my roommate would not tell me a time that she wanted to leave Beijing. She kept telling me to "get a good rest" and that she would tell me in the morning, but that is annoying because I don't know if she means she will wake me up or that she will call me when she is ready to go, assuming I am ready to go as well. So really, this meant that I had to be up at 830AM on Sunday so I could be ready whenever she called. Not fun. At all. 

Friday night hot pot and Walmart shopping for baby bottles...yes that is what I said

Sorry I have been behind on posts but today I will try to pick up where I left off...

Friday: Went out to dinner for hot pot with 10 other teachers at No. 11 school. When leaving the school and debating whether or not I should bring my computer back to my room, I was notified that the teacher whose name I still can't remember had a car and we were going to go to the restaurant in her car. I don't think I have even been so excited to ride in a car before. I felt like she was the coolest girl ever and I was cool too because I got to ride in her car. When we were driving he phone rang and she pressed a button and it was connected to the car so we could hear the conversation through the speakers. Now I'm sure this is not that cool of a feature, but I have never seen someone do it and really everything is much cooler because it is China.

At the restaurant the teachers were pouring bai jiu (pin yin spelling?) which is really strong and not tasty liquor. They asked me, well poured me then asked me if I wanted some and agreed because it is the polite thing to do. Of course they drank shot by shot and I sipped mine so it would last half of the 15 toasts they made throughout the dinner. I know the first few were to welcome me to the school and to Yanqing, but truthfully I have no idea what the remaining 13 were for. I just smiled, clinked my glass with theirs and smiled.

Observation: I embarrassingly enough did not get the memo about doing toasts and the importance of making sure when you toast with someone, if they are your superior or and elder to make sure your glass is lower than theirs, to show respect. My roommate gave me this helpful tip just in time to not make a fool of myself. As I am everyday, I am so thankful for such a kind and welcoming roommate to guide me through living in China.

Observation 2: Just because you have eaten a lot of beef already during the meal, it doesn't mean that every time there is meat in front of you that it will be beef. I realized this through trial and error--by eating meat that I thought was beef, thinking it had gone bad, then realizing that it was definitely lamb,which I found out I am definitely not a fan of. Then I had another opportunity to try mystery meat and it tasted really good. I then found out it was lamb. I laughed to myself at this discovery--I do not like boiled lamb because it is too strong of a taste. I do however like lamb on a shishkabob. (I know how excited you must be to be learning this about me, but whatever I don't care.)

Observation 3: One of the teachers brought her daughter along to have dinner with us. She sat next to me and I noticed she would often deny any food that people tried to give her. She literally just sad there and dipped her chopsticks in the sesame sauce (which I was taught by my mother to NEVER do that because it is bad taste) and licked it off. I was thinking to myself that if she was trying to lose weight, it would probably be best to just eat the vegetables and not drink fatty sauce. But alas, my views on weight loss are much different than the Chinese ones here. I have also noticed that many girls I have talked to will tell themselves it is okay to eat something because its not really fatty, and I just run it over and over again in my head and try to wrap my head around their logic that just doesn't  make any sense.  Like my roommate with the fried chicken...yes, chicken is not really fatty, but she chooses to ignore how fattening the grease it is dipped in is. I guess this isn't that different from girls at home, just the environment and foods change. The twisted logic is all the same.

Observation 4: If you don't want to eat anymore, just saying you are full does nothing. They will proceed to put food in your bowl regardless. If you want to stop, you must say "wo xiang jian fei" (I want to lose weight.) in order for them to stop giving you food. It's so crazy. One teacher literally stopped in his tracks, took back the food he was going to give me, and apologized for trying to give me more food. Its like magic words that really don't work at home. Maybe it's because they think I need to lose weight? I don't know, but it works and I'm all for it.

After dinner my roommate and I went to Walmart, as we do at least once a week, sometimes twice a week. As I pushed my cart past the baby section, because why would we linger in the baby section if we both do not have babies? I soon heard my name being yelled 50 feet away for me to come look at baby bottles. May I also add that because it was Friday night, everyone and their mom (literally because everyone shops with the whole family) was there, making it more embarrassing than it already is that I am the only American in the store. So I go find my roommate, only to realize she is actually looking at baby bottles...for purchase. I think to myself, hmm well I know her brother has a daughter, but the daughter is definitely 4 years old. Do they still use bottles when they are that old here? I don't think so. So I asked Si Yu why she would want to buy a bottle and she proceeded to tell me how much she envied her niece when she saw her using one (not sure if this was yesterday or 3 years ago). The bottle was going to be for her. I asked once more to make sure I heard correctly and she replied with, "Don't laugh at me! My boyfriend laughed at me too!" Si Yu is so cute. She looked for about 10 minutes before deciding on a bottle which included all the necessary tools for cleaning and maintenance.

Observation 5: Jackie Chan is everywhere. He is in so many ads I can't even keep track. It's like everywhere you turn, there he is, holding something new to endorse. When I mentioned this to my sister she told me that people are actually angry about all his different ads because what he endorses breaks or isn't good. This is very interesting because when students have been asking me who my favorite actor/actress is (I know they don't know Cameron Diaz or Richard Gere) I always just say it's Jackie Chan because they know who he is. I hope that is not a bad answer because he is not liked at the moment. : /

A night on the town with fellow teachers

Actually, I think that sounds more exciting that it may actually be :) It's really just all the teachers in my office and the one next door going out to have hot pot. I am pretty excited though because that means there will be meat, and since I am living in the school where they do not really serve any meat, I am super pumped. Today was really relaxing though because I did not have to wake up early for the first time since I have been here. I usually wake up at 545AM and go to sleep around 930-10PM...which is so incredibly early for me. But here, since there really isn't anything to do and I am tired from getting up so early, I end up falling asleep that early anyway.

Observations:

One: I tried the pretend KFC at the school's cafeteria. It was AMAZING! For those of you (well I assume all of you) reading this, you must be thinking of American traditional KFC with drumsticks and wings because that's what I thought I was getting as well. Here it is much different. I feel the amount of actual chicken is much like McDonald's chicken nuggets. You think there may be a small amount, but you aren't quite sure because it looks nothing like chicken. The chicken I had was really rectangular, flat, coated in some sort of crumbs, deep fried, and served on a stick. But boy was it delicious! My roommate even tried convincing me that it was good for you because chicken does not really have fat in it...so I just smiled....knowing how fatty it actually is because of the yummy deep friedness.

Two: When I was on the computer today I noticed everyone was busily cleaning the teacher's lounge....like deep cleaning. I asked if this was something they do monthly because it seemed as though the whole school, teachers, students and all were involved in this process. I was then informed that the headmaster's headmaster was coming to visit the school, which is why everything must be top notch. I helped with a little sweeping and taping things on the walls and finally some of the school officials came in to inspect the room. I also noticed the food contained more meat than usual and realized it was because important people were visiting. The bikes that are usually lined up by the front gate were moved to the back of the school and the school looked amazing. Whenever I am in these situations and I think about what American students would do and say I always feel like they would say "I don't care. You can't make me clean anything." which is really sad to me. I see how much everyone here puts in their effort to make sure their school looks good and how proud they are of their school and their country. It's a nice change of pace.

Cigarette smoking is a great way to lose weight! (not really)

My new friend whom I still don't know the name of informed me yesterday that the best way to lose weight is by smoking cigarettes. When she was talking I was reminded of how great a commercial it would be for cigarettes if they were still made. She told me that when she was in college that she was really fat and lost 50 lbs by smoking.  I think I was in shock that someone was actually telling me that smoking was a good idea. I responded with the fact that smoking is really bad for you and can cause many diseases. My roommate and the girl just looked at me, shrugged their shoulders and kept smoking.

Observations:

One: The "bells" that dismiss the students in the schools I work at are actually not bells at all, but rather, a 10 second Chinese song that sounds like something elementary children would skip around the room and clap to. It's quite different than hearing a bell in American schools. I don't know if it's because i am used to it or what, but when I hear a school bell go off, I immediately think of "hurry, gotta get to my next class!" Here, it is much different. Even when the music goes off I am often confused if class is really over because 1) there are no clocks in the classroom 2) No one stops me from teaching to tell me class is over  and 3) sometimes kids just blow whistles in the hallway and I don't know what that means. I feel awkward ending class each time because everyone waits for my cue to get out of their seats, when I am used to the rude way students in America end classes by getting ready to leave before the professor stops talking. Also, what must make things easier for students here is that the teachers switch classes, not the students. This may explain why the students are in no hurry to leave their classroom. The added factor of giving teachers actual respect must also be a part of it.

Two: The use of physical punishment is still alive and thriving in schools here, which makes me extremely uncomfortable. Although I have not seen it at No. 11 middle school, I assume it exists there as it does in No.7. Every time I am in the midst of a lecture that almost always turns into a beating with wood panels, I get this tight knot in my stomach. Although I really have no idea what these kids did wrong, I just keep thinking of what would happen in a situation like this in the Seattle School District, particularly the elementary school where I worked for three years. I remember the countless times I have called the office to get security guards to escort a student out of the room because they would not leave. The way each culture (American and Chinese) disciplines their students and/or children is so different and I keep thinking CPS will bust through the door, but alas they do not. Do they even have a CPS here? If so, I wonder what the conditions must be in order to take away a child.

Three: Today one of my students asked, "Do you like KFC? I like it very much, that is why I am so fat!" It was very cute. It also made me think of how open they are here to talking about their own bodies. I know not many people would be comfortable enough with their bodies to say this in America, let alone a 7th grade girl just entering puberty. Actually, I wonder if puberty starts at the same time as it does in America, which is getting younger and younger. My seventh grade students here look much like American third and fourth graders. I showed a picture of some fifth grade students I tutored at home to my roommate and she was so surprised that they were not in high school because they are so much tall and older looking. Even today when I walked into a new classroom of students I had to think carefully about if I was in the right classroom or if this was actually a second grade class.

I don't know what number it is anymore...

Today I met another teacher at No. 7 middle school and I just realized that I talked to her for an hour or so and do not know her name. Hmm. Anyway, she teaches music here and she told me a lot about her life which of course was really fascinating. She told me she got engaged a couple months ago and that she will get married next year. I asked her if she was excited about getting married and she made a very unhappy face and threw her head onto a pillow. I guessed from this that the answer was no. I was correct. She told me that ever since she was thirteen that she had decided that she did not want to have kids. I am not quite sure how she met her fiance, but I know that her parents like him very much because he is a nice guy, but her heart is not in it. She told me she loves him but (and she couldnt think of the english word and I couldn't understand the Chinese one) I think she was trying to tell me that she did not have passion for him. She also told me that Chinese marriages are not something to be excited about because it is just another part of life. Now I have heard this  many times from various sources (parents, books, Chinese teachers, etc.) but it's always different to hear it from "a real person" rather than just a fact through passing. Also, almost everyday when I teach in a new classroom, one student always manages to ask me about MY family, not the family I am connected to by birth, but who are the people in my family. I always say that I do not have a husband or any children and each and every time they turn to each other and say things that I am not quick enough to catch.

Many observations today:

One: I am considered a slow eater. At home, I always finish eating before other people and everyone tells me to slow down. Here, I am always the last one and people stare at me when waiting for me to finish. Interesting enough, I also take "fast showers" here. My roommate, the cab driver and people in the showering facility all tell me that I take very quick showers. At home I do not feel like I do, but I guess showers here last an hour or more, probably because they do not take them as often.

Two: My roommate and her friend smoke cigarettes and while doing so made me swear not to tell anyone about it because it would be a really bad thing if the students found out their teacher smokes. Also, only girls smoke; women do not smoke. I do not know why this is so, but I have noticed this to be the case.

Three: I keep forgetting that there is no such thing as privacy here. Everyone and anyone comes to look at what I am writing and just stands behind me. It's quite awkward.

There are many more that I can't think of now. Will write them later.

Day 8

I forgot to mention in my other posts that there are not any showering facilities in the school I am living at, which means that the students go home on the weekend to shower and the teachers  much go to a public shower--!!! Having a shower always accessible to me at home, I was quite freaked out about this. Also, because the teachers here are so busy with teaching so many hours a day and still having to correct papers, they do not make it to the shower place more than once a week. I also freaked out when I found this out. After asking many people, I finally found a place that allowed me to shower alone, for the price of almost quadruple the normal price that people pay here, which still is only 20 yuan (a little more than $3 US). So today was my second shower here. During the week when I am unable to go to the showering facility, I have to sponge bathe myself...which sucks, but I keep telling myself that many people all over the world must do this so it's not really that big of a deal. I kind of treat many things that I am not used to like that. I pretend I am on Survivorman and somehow it makes it all easier. Thank g-d for Les!