English Corners Gone Wrong

Today, I hosted my first English Corner of the semester.  English Corners are when your students come to practice their English with you in a smaller, casual setting, and usually involves snacks and some sort of conversation-inducing activity.

I scheduled our Corner for 6:30 and ordered three large pizzas that put me out a heft fraction of my humble monthly salary.  I enlisted my wonderful friend and educator extraordinaire, Frieda, to take on one of the small groups, since Chinese students get so excited at the prospect of talking with a "Native Speaker" who isn't already their teacher.  I rearranged my furniture.  Jason generously helped me to clean my place up, go grocery shopping, and carry all the heavy stuff on our way back.

6:50 rolls around.  Frieda and I are sitting on my couch waiting.  Pizza is getting cold.  I'm getting hungry and therefore cranky.  No one shows.

I could have gotten upset.  I could have complained about how my students-- all in their mid-to-late twenties-- are incompetent and incapable of doing anything without their overbearing mothers.  I could have... easily.  I almost did.

Instead, I had a lovely evening with my wonderfully wise friend.  I now have a week's worth of food  which I can feed other hungry mouths with.  I have a clean house and no dishes to do.  I went grocery shopping, which I would have put off until I realized I was out of toilet paper (and we all hate that).  I got to experience a glimpse of lifelong partnership with a generous man who will become my husband. 

Not all flukes are failures.

Stories by Brian: If I could collect 100 objects...

The assignment this week was to teach the kids about writing well-organized paragraphs where they use critical thinking to explain their ideas.  I taught them how to make a basic outline, and this is what they came up with.  The prompt was to tell us what they would collect 100 of, and explain three reasons why.  As usual, Brian did not disappoint.

If I could collect 100 object, I will collect 100 kinds of sheep from the universe.
I can see how stinky are there poops, what is the color of them and what do they eat.  I can drink their milk and taste is it yummy?  What is the flavor?  is the milk smelly?  also I can count them when I sleep.  That makes me sleep and I can see how they sing lullaby play violin.
After you see my reasons, maybe you want to collect sheeps too! 

I do, indeed, Brian.  I do, indeed. 

CGNWWT Part 3: Chiang Mai, Thailand Part 1

Ahh, Thailand.  There is so much to say about Chiang Mai that I had to cut my CGNWWT Entry for Thailand into two parts.  Though my time in this amazing country was short, I am pretty certain that it is a magical place that would give Walt Disney a serious run for his money.  I realize that it’s certainly not perfect, and even the current political turmoil is evidence that my perspective on Thailand is one of great privilege.  However, there is something to be said about the quality of life of Thailand and how it is simply a lifestyle rather than something to aspire to.

Clouds outside my airplane window as we landed in Bangkok.

Homes downtown in the traditional Chiang Mai style.

The moment I stepped off the plane into Chiang Mai, I felt the feeling of coming home in a foreign country for the first time.  A lot of long-timers in China have expressed that they felt that when they arrived in Beijing.  I hate to say it since I do love aspects of China, but I am so grateful that I felt that feeling in Chiang Mai. 

As many of you know, Jason and I traveled to Thailand mostly to visit the Tang family—some friends of ours who took off to Thailand at the same time that we shipped off to China.  They are working with the Zoe House, which is a childrens’ home for young people who are at-risk for being sold into human trafficking.  It was amazing to go and speak with some of the rescued children who are now being fed, clothed, and educated in schools in Chiang Mai.  The staff at Zoe is incredible and their spirit is infectious.

Some of the Zoe kids & staff

While we visited, we were able to see the beginnings of a new era in Zoe history.  Zoe’s ultimate vision is to open a fully functioning boarding school with dormitories for families, single adults, single parents, and children.  Currently, they are finishing just a few dorm and office buildings, but it was amazing to drive out to the land where Zoe’s future will slowly be developed.

One of the Zoe girls at the site of the new Zoe complex.  She was using that giant leaf to shade herself from the sun.

We also were able to do a few touristy things.  These photos are from two walks in the downtown area.  The night scenes are from the Sunday night walking market, and the others are just from the city center of Chiang Mai, which contains tons of Buddhist temples.

 Jason will probably not like that I posted this one, but this is him eating some street food.  Clearly, it's a sausage.  

But it's filled with rice and pork and is a little chewy and a lot delicious.

These flowers are actually made of soap and individually painted.

This is a Buddha that was wrapped for some reason in that orange cloth.  It reminded me of a Rene Magrite painting.

 

Songthaws are like the lovechild of taxis and buses.  This is how Jason and I got from place to place most of the time.  Super convenient and surprisingly comfy!

 A Buddhist cemetary

One thing Jason and I noticed right away is the amazing friendliness of the Thai people.  In situations where many Americans and even Chinese living in Beijing would roll their eyes, fed up with the dumb tourists, the people in Chiang Mai simply laughed it off and gave us the help we needed.  Oddly enough, being around such patience and grace convicted me greatly of my own shortness with strangers and my unwillingness to express compassion in situations that don't benefit me directly.  It was wonderful to get a different sense of life and remember what it's like to not be caught up in the everyday hustle or the growing obsession with finding a clear career path and making money.  There is much that we can learn from the folks in Chiang Mai... certainly more than I expected.  I can't wait to go back.

New Series: Stories by Brian

I know I promised a post on Thailand, but I needed to make sure that I'd include this before Friday.  Why Friday?  This semester, I have the great privilege of tutoring five primary school students every Friday for two hours.  They have all lived in the U.S. for a short time in the recent past while their parents did visiting scholarships at Harvard and MIT.  The "hungry for knowledge" gene was promptly passed down, and their parents (being good Chinese parents) didn't want their kids to lose the English they'd gained in their time Stateside.  Hence, my new side-job.


Brian is one of the brightest in the group, and even at the tender age of nine, he gets excited by synonyms and antonyms, brainstorms, and silent consonants.  I'm fairly certain that most fluent English-speakers don't even know what synonyms and antonyms are.  Every week, I let him use his imagination (which he's pretty stoked about) and write a creative story.  I've decided that his amazing stories are certainly worthy of their own series on my humble little blog.  So here's the first in the series, entitled, "New Year's Party."


I'm gonna have a new year part in the pyramid and it gonna be the biggest in Cairo.

I will invite the emporor of France- Napolean, he will go by car.  I will invite Sherlock Holmes, he will go by car too.  And I will invite a group of aliens, they will go by their spaceship.

Then, I will have 1000 kg of dumplings from Dumpling Patrol, 1,000,000 cups of peach juice, and 1,000,000,000 kg2 of pizza because the aliens stomach is too big.

After supper, I will give the presents: backpacks for the aliens, alive teddy for Napolean, and stuffed fish for Sherlock.  Then the party is over.

I think the party will be fun!

Happy Birthday, Mom

Yesterday (March 13) was my mom's Birthday.  I called her today because of the time difference, and even though she was sick and it was midnight in Oregon, she still answered the phone and made a little time in the last bit of her birthday to accept my wishes graciously.
Some of you have the great privilege of knowing my mom personally.  Others only know her through me and my many stories about her.  For the latter, the one comment I always get is, "Your mom sounds so cool!" or "Boy, your mom sure sounds like a character."

My mom and me in a relatively normal moment.

Yes, it's true.  My mom is absolutely nuts, and that is why we love her.  My mom, who dances in the living room with my dad for no apparent reason.  My mother, who sings Patsy Cline at the top of her lungs during long road trips despite the rest of the family begging her to stop.  The source of my own sense of crazy and my piercing laugh.  If I say some key phrases, our family will be able to conjur some amazing stories about my mom.  For example: backing out of the garage, leftover whiskey shot, Zumba fitness, Mountain Mama, and the list goes on.
Being on the other side of the world makes it a little difficult to celebrate with her, but we always have a great time when we are together to make up for these sad lost moments.
So here you go, Ma.  It's not much, but I dedicate this little number to you.  Patsy Cline's voice may sound sweeter than your's does on our home karaoke machine, but she still doesn't hold a candle to you.  I love you!

CGNWWT Part Two: Zhuhai & Macau

After three glorious weeks back on the homefront, I headed back to East Asia for a week-long conference for foreign teachers in China.  It was great to get together and swap stories, advice, and lift each other up and encourage each other for the upcoming semester.  Our whole team only gets to meet once a year, and being that there are a ton of kids in our organization, it is always fun to watch them grow in year-long increments.

Our conference this year was in Zhuhai, located on the southeastern corner of the Mainland.  Zhuhai was our second choice for conference location (first being Macau), but we were all looking forward to some warmer weather as most of us were coming from the northern areas of China.  Womp womp womp.  Zhuhai was cloudy, cold, and windy and I wore my wool coat for the duration of my stay there.

Fortunately, the hotel that we moved to for the conference was a "China Five-Star" (which means about the equivalent of a Three-Star internationally) and our conference was great overall.  We had a wonderful keynote speaker and coordinator, and stayed well-fed.  The highlight of the conference was a day-trip into Macau.

Macau- technically a "special administrative region" of China- is a tiny little "country" that was once colonized by Portugal.  For that reason, it bears a lot of evidence of European presence in its architecture, and even its food.  Portuguese is still widely spoken and nearly all the signs are written in Traditional Chinese characters and Portuguese.  Today, Macau is a large hub for gambling and its major source of income is its casinos.  During our trip, we had a chance to walk around a small concession-like village and look at all the brightly colored row-houses and cathedrals.

In the central area of Macau, we saw the remains of St. Mark's Cathedral and also visited Robert Morrison's Chapel and burial site.  For those of you who weren't aware (as I was prior to this visit), Robert Morrison was one of the first M's to come to China and the first man who translated the Book into Chinese.  For that, we certainly have much to owe to his memory.

Hmmm... comforting.

While I'm sure I most likely won't be making an intentional trip back to Zhuhai or Macau, it was still interesting to see this region of China.  Next in line: Chiang Mai, Thailand!

Crazy Go Nuts Whirlwind Worldwide Trip PART ONE: Stateside

And thus begins my long series of blog posts following my trip around the world.  I've decided to give my long trip an equally long moniker, which will henceforth be replaced by a very long acronym.  This trip wasn't filled with tourist activities, but it was still an excellent tour of some very different cultures, climates, and people-- some familiar and others completely foreign.  I'm certain this won't be my last CGNWWT (see?  Long acronym, eh?), but for my first one, I'd have to say I was glad to have kept my cool for most of it.

First stop was back home to the States for a girlfriend's wedding in, my favorite city, San Francisco.  Aside from having the honor of being a part of one of my best friend's weddings, I got a chance to reconnect with all the things that makes San Francisco the wonderful place that it is.  Having lived in Beijing for the past year and a half, it was surprising to me that I would come back to San Francisco and find it to be a comparably sleepy city and pleasantly uncrowded.  A lot of people have claimed that San Francisco is just another city, but I triple-dog dare you to find a city with as much "local color."  For example:

Here's a sign I found in an alleyway in the Mission District.  Just your friendly reminder to not defecate in someone's garden.  Not too much to ask, right?

 

Two of my best friends and I at a local restaurant/nightclub called Asia SF which is famous throughout the city for their "illusion artists."  And what, you might ask, are "illusion artists"?

 

Feast your eyes on the most beautiful man I've ever seen.  That's right, the one on the left is a man.  And homegirl can dance, lip-sync, and serve up food like no one's business- all in six-inch heels and with a smile.

 

Like I said... I triple-dog dare ya.

The greatest thing about San Francisco is how different each of its districts are.  It's hard to decide which is my favorite, but one of my favorites is definitely the Mission District which, sadly, is quickly becoming gentrified and losing much of its Latino culture.  However, another great merit of San Francisco is the effort the city puts forth in preserving and nurturing its history and distinct cultures.  Here are a few snapshots from an afternoon in near Balmy Alley in the Mission, which is covered in murals and lined with panaderias and various different mercados.

 

 

A few panaderias (Mexican bakeries) have started selling cupcakes, having followed the cupcake craze just a few minutes behind the rest of the world.  They weren't stellar, but we still had fun sampling them alongside more familiar pan dulces.  

This was a funny little moment of local color as well.  What was once a storefront became a vacant window with a mailbox where people asked "Ms. Sterioso" for their "fortunas" and advice.  Some questions were silly (ie. "Will I get lucky tonight at the bars?") and others were a bit more serious (ie. "When and how will this country redeem itself?").  Ms. Sterioso always had some clever, albeit tongue-in-cheek, advice to offer.  My friend and I spent a good fifteen minutes just reading the different cards.

Naturally, one of the best things about going home is EATING EVERYTHING.  I've already posted about how nuts I went over avocadoes when I went home, and the first thing I wanted to do once I set foot on U.S. soil was eat a bagel with cream cheese.  Here are a few things I consumed Stateside. 

Some friends and I ducked into this little taqueria called Taqueria Oaxaquena because of its proximity to the 16th and Mission BART Station and choice of vegetarian entrees.  Best coincidence ever.  Don't you love those serendipitous food moments when you stumble upon delicious eats just by chance?  I had the fish tacos.  Spicy and scrumptious.

 They also sold these GIANT tamales made in the Oaxacan style (wrapped in a banana leaf rather than corn husk) and were literally the size of your face.

 

 Molten Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream served at Asia SF.

 

Oddly enough, this was the first time I ate Shark Fin Soup.  It was at my friend's wedding banquet and I must say it was completely lackluster and mostly just tasted like a thickened broth with cartilage floating around in it.  It also didn't sit well in my conscience knowing the environmental implications of eating Shark Fin Soup.  At least I can say that I've done it.

 

 Of course, nothing can hold a candle to home-cooked goods.  What were we thinking as kids, always wanting to go out for dinner and passing up things made on home stovetops in favor of Olive Garden and Chili's?  Blasphemy.  This pie made by a friend of mine literally stopped a conversation.  Everything was made from scratch and it certainly showed.  Take THAT Marie Callendar!

 

Finally.  Behold, quite possibly the world's most perfect food.  This is my mom's Galbi Jjim (갈 비찜) which is basically Korea's answer to Pot Roast.  In my opinion, Galbi Jjim beats Pot Roast any day and my mom's Galbi Jjim brought tears to my eyes.  The meat falls off the bone and melts in your mouth and the marrow thickens up the sauce to make it creamy and delicious without being too heavy.  Pair it with the tangy, clean taste of Kim Chi and some purple rice, then be done with Pot Roast forever.

 

Ahh... home.  I was only there for three weeks, but what a sweet three weeks it was.  Next on the itinerary: Zhuhai, China!