Whew! We have been so busy lately preparing our lessons for our classes. They are 12 lessons spread over 3 months. Dave is teaching generally 4-5 year olds and mine will be a little younger. And because we are native English speakers, they are charging more for our classes, so they keep telling us they hope they will be very good... which puts us under a bit of pressure. ;)
Other than that, spring has finally sprung! We had one snow day while we were here, which I was extremely grateful for (though I wish it could have been on a day we had off so we could actually enjoy it), but I'm ready for it to be warmer now. Blossoms are slowly popping out on the cherry trees, and I even saw a patch of grass today by our apartments. We've also been preparing for a big Easter party at school. I'm pretty sure the kids will go crazy for the egg hunt, bunny hop dance, and cookies.
So we have been trying to learn more Chinese, although we're pretty lazy about it. Most important was learning the numbers obviously for when we have to buy things, but you also have to learn the hand signs that go with it. In America we just count by adding another finger, which is generally the same for the Chinese for numbers one through five. But then it gets a little tricky. Here's some pictures to illustrate.
Chinese words and phrases learned so far:
One- iy head- toh knee- si gai no- mei yo
Two- ar hair- toh fa ear- ir dwah yes- dwei
Three- san hand- shou eyebrow- mei mau wo bu dong- I don't know
Four- tse finger- shou juh chest- xiong hello- nihao
Five- wo arm- guobua pants- koo zah hu diye- butterfly
Six- liu elbow- guobua juh America- mei guo
seven- chi nose- bizuh China- Jung guo
eight- ba throat- bwazuh thank you- shye shye
nine- jiu foot- jiao you're welcome- buh cuh jyi
ten- shur toes- jiao juh subway- di tiye
Did I mention the girls at work gave us Chinese names too? Dave's is da shiong which means big hero. Mine is shon shian which means fairy (they dig my curly hair over here). Not that people really call us these names, but it's still nice to have. :)
Recently on our way back from work we've seen piles of flowers burning in the middle of streets- sometimes rather busy traffic streets too. We had no idea what was going on until we asked and were told that it is to honor people who have died in those spots. One night we saw the whole ceremony as we waited to get food from a street vendor. About 15-20 people walked into the middle of the street with flowers and three tall wooden cases. They placed the flowers in and all around the wooden cases, then lit them on fire. As they burnt, everyone knelt on the floor and started to bow and pray to the pyres. It was a bit strange to watch, but at the same time I could feel the need for respect for the situation. Right now we have a three day weekend because of a holiday which sounds rather similar in that families are supposed to honor their dead ancestors.
We have recently discovered the awesomeness of outdoor markets, which are huge and sprawling and practically everywhere in China. We were a bit hesitant to try buying things at them at the risk of being jipped, but today we thought we would venture out to the one just off the corner of our street. Half of these markets are dedicated to fruits and vegetables and the other half has hot and ready food you can buy for snacks or a meal. We got some really tasty fried chicken there tonight, and tomorrow we'll probably get a roast duck. We also got super delicious vegetables and noodles that we later cooked in the wok, and it tasted just like at Mongolian BBQ. I think I will definitely do more shopping at these places because it's much cheaper than at the supermarket. If my camera had audio capabilities for its movie taking, I would just show you our street myself, but since it doesn't, here's a video to give you a sense of the outdoor market in China.
Other than that, things are great and we will hopefully take a trip up to the Great Wall after we get our paycheck. There is a closer way to get there through Tianjin than the more typical route through Beijing, and apparently it is less crowded that way too. :)
Oh, we also found out about QQ which is China's version of facebook. Everyone here has one and since we've gotten an account we've been able to connect with our co-workers more (and help them with their English typing skills). They sent me some pictures they had taken of me at school teaching lessons. :) Pic 1 pic 2 pic 3 pic 4 pic 5 pic 6
Its so cool to see you teaching! What are you doing in the third picture? and the girl next to you in that last picture is pretty :) Thanks for the update. :]
ReplyDelete-Kimberly
In the third picture I was telling a story to the kids called, "Guess How Much I Love You?" They had it in English, but because the kids were smaller I had to use my own words and make it more simple. And because it involved bunnies, I had to hop a lot. ;)
Delete