Week 5

September 30 is mid-Autumn or Moon Cake Festival so the English Department had a Mid-Autumn Festival dinner for all of the foreign teachers.  It was very nice with lots of delicious food and we each received a beautiful box of Moon Cakes.  This is a traditional lunar harvest festival when families all gather and the traditional gift of food is the Moon Cake ... some say it's similar in culture to Christmas Fruit Cake.  Not everyone likes it but it is part of the festival.  The holiday can be traced back over 3000 years but was just made a government holiday in 2008.

Moon Cakes have many different fillings ... some sweet and some not so sweet.

We have all next week off as a holiday because of the mid-Autumn Festival followed by National Day.  However, we did have to teach our Thursday classes today, Saturday.  Why just make up the Thursday classes ... no one seems to know.  But since students had to attend class, we had an American Word party in our oral language classes.  I brought Moon Cakes and candies and then taught students Boggle, Pictionary, Charades, and some rhythm games with names and vocabulary.  They seemed to have a lot of fun and they loved the candies.

Other fun this week included having lunch with 2 Engineering students who approached me while I was walking across campus.  They just wanted to practice their English and finally convinced me to have lunch with them at the student center.  They insisted we go to the third floor where there was better food and then they talked a young girl working in the canteen to open one of the private dining rooms for us.  We had dumplings and soup and a fun chat.  They were so excited to have a chance to practice English and wanted me to take a picture of them.


I guess this week centered around food because I also had a great pizza and salad lunch with another English teacher and his French wife.  She is doing research on Chinese language acquisition and young children and wanted to talk to me about American schools.  It was very interesting.

Today after class a friend and I walked to our favorite park which was full of flowers for the mid-Autumn Festival and trees were wrapped with gold as they prepare to open a new circus pavilion.  We've seen an elephant, tiger, and several horses.  Once the Circus opens, we plan to go and I'll send pictures from the Chinese circus.  It was such a beautiful day in the park we didn't want to leave so ended up going on a "duck" paddle boat around the lake after our walk.

Duck Boat Paddle Boat

Park Musicians

Circus Ticket Office

Park filled with flowers for the holiday celebrations

Park Entrance - The dragon and background are all flowers

Park was full of couples taking wedding pictures

One last new adventure is that I was asked to be the president of the women's organization in my church.  It'll be fun getting to know more people and it will give me another "excuse" to go explore even more of the city as I visit the other women living in Xi'an.  On Monday, I leave for a 6 day trip over the holiday to North-West China following the old Silk Road.  From what I've read, it will be a great trip and a whole new ancient area of China.  I hope to have lots of fun pictures to share.  Have a good week and enjoy the beautiful colors that must now be appearing in Minnesota.

Can't Get Enough of the Park

Does This Look Familiar?

Dining Experiences

City Wall With Students

More Photos of Campus

XJTU Campus

Week 3:  University Life

I'm settling in with my classes and love being back in the classroom teaching.  My students are wonderful and I find them very energizing.  They are starting to be more interactive in class discussions and are very bright and eager to learn.  My two sections of writing I also see for Lexicology so I feel the most connected to these students.  They wrote about their names and how they got their name, what their name means etc.  Their essays were so interesting and full of emotion. I could feel the great respect and love they have for their families and the importance of their name.  It's rare to have 2 students with the same given name because each is unique and full of meaning and best wishes from their parents.  Most of my students use an "English" name in class and some are very interesting ... "R, Cabbage, Echo, Lavender, Ice Ring, Chitty, Lazy, QQ, KaKa..."  They often choose a name from a movie or book they have read or an English word they think would be fun.  For example, R chose his name because he thought it would stand out and it would be easy for everyone to remember.  He has a great sense of humor and is fun in class so "R" actually suites him quite well.

Students have very similar interests to US college students but some of them have class 7 days a week.  I work with a couple of bilingual classes and most of them are majoring in English and Russian.  Most of my students do not have a drivers license, they all live on campus, most have a girlfriend or boyfriend, most like movies and music, social networks, video games, and basketball.  None of my students have ever had a job.  They find it interesting that many US students have had jobs since high school.

The campus has a lot of trees and I walk down several streets that are lined on both sides with trees.  Our class building is for "International Studies" and includes the English department and a new American Exchange Program.  From my apartment to class is about a 30 minute brisk walk ... refreshing except in the pouring rain.  I need rain boots but my feet are too big :-)  I may have to buy a pair of boy's rain boots to keep my feet dry and warm.   So far I've just worn sandals but today my  feet got cold so I need a plan B.

It's been mostly beautiful weather with the evenings cooling down and I get a nice breeze through my windows.  The elementary school next door has also begun so it's fun to hear the chatter of kids and I keep hearing the same songs over and over.  I don't know the words but I can definitely sing the melody :-)  Some other teachers came to my house this morning for breakfast and then we walked over to the park.  As usual, the park was full of activity.  Tonight I am meeting some other BYU teachers for dinner and then we have a church activity and a District Conference.  It's fun getting together with the other Americans in our group and compare our experiences.   I hope you are all off to a great start of a new school year.  I think of you often.

 

Laundry Day in the Dorm

Classroom

 

Children at the Park ... Parents often want you to take their picture.

Freshman Military Training in the Park

He loved an audience

Friends at Xingqinggong Park

Week 2:  

I went to a piano concert at another university last night ... the daughter of an Italian teacher.  The concert was great but I had to stand in the rain for 45 minutes trying to get a taxi.  Not exactly fun but I learned an important lesson ...  taxi's are hard to get when it's raining and I was charged twice as much as usual.  It's amazing how much you can learn when everything is new :-) 

I explored a new park this week after class.  It was about a 20 minute bus ride.  Going to the park I could sit but coming home, it was very crowded and I had to stand the whole time.  Standing was OK but it was a little tricky seeing out a window to know when to get off the bus.  Always an adventure :-)  The Big Wild Goose Pagoda is one of the most famous Buddhist pagodas in China and the park surrounding it is fabulous.  In half of the park you see many people and lots of activity but in the other half, it is quiet with lots of water flowing, quiet music playing and very peaceful and relaxing.  I hope you enjoy a few pictures.

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda

Dragon Lanterns throughout the park

One of my favorite areas of the park with relaxing music

As you can see, the greenery is very lush.

These girls wanted their picture taken with me.

Week 1 at XJTU

Week 1 at XJTU was great.  I've enjoyed all my classes, the students are wonderful, and I can mostly find my way around campus.  I've added the bus and metro to my modes of transportation and managed to find my way ... with the help of some kind people who spoke enough English to point me in the right direction. :-)  Saturday I joined some other teachers from BYU, Portugal and Japan for a day of shopping in the market.  I hope you enjoy our Market pictures.  I hope everyone has a great start to the new school year.  I have my students use Daily 5 .. but I changed it to, "Think, Listen, Speak, Read, Write" in English each day.  They like Daily 5 and I hope you continue to enjoy the Plymouth Creek Daily 5 and keep reading.  I miss you and wish you all the best in the coming school year.