Greetings from my "easy chair."   It's very grey and overcast today ... a little mist but no rain or snow.

It's actually nice to sit and chat with you this afternoon because this was a week of some surprises and challenges.  I was greatly saddened by the school shootings in Connecticut and have two friends here in Xi'an who both taught in Connecticut and know people in that community.  Needless to say they were frantically trying to connect with friends and family.  The grief of that tragedy was on top of a school stabbing of many students here in China a couple of days earlier.

On Saturday afternoon a friend who lives across the hall and I were leaving our apartment building to run some errands and she missed the last step and broke her foot. (the stairwells are dark and we've both commented on how careful we need to be)  Fortunately her husband was home and between the two of us got her up three flights of stairs.  I went in search of an ice pack with minimal success... came back with a bag of frozen peas and a hot water bottle that I filled and put in the freezer.  Going for an x-ray was another adventure.  After walking several blocks and waiting for 30 minutes for a cab in the cold without luck she had to go back up three flights to the apartment while another friend continued to try and get a cab.  They finally got a cab to the hospital and then after seeing the doctor, had to walk another block to the building where they took the x-ray.  The long and short of it is a nasty sprained ankle and a broken bone on the top of her foot.  Not easy when you have to walk everywhere and no elevators in our building.  The hospital didn't have crutches so we are still trying to find some or better yet, a scooter.

Monday is my last day of class for this semester.  Wow the time has gone by quickly!  We got our final exam schedule on Friday and I had a few moments of panic because my finals were scheduled while I was going to be out of town.  I had been given earlier dates so booked a flight to go on a tour with a group starting January 16.  The good news - they re-schedule the exams ... not so good news ... they scheduled them outside of the testing weeks while I had planned to be in Northeast China for a winter festival.  I'll have to cancel my trip because I can't reschedule again.  Hopefully I'll get some of the trip refunded.  Planning is not a strength of any of the universities here which is probably one of the biggest challenges for those of us who are use to living by a schedule.  I still don't know my schedule for next semester and students don't even know what classes they will have.  Oh well.  :-)

On Friday, the 21st, I've invited students to my apartment for a little "American" Christmas party.  I am going to try making sugar cookies.  I don't have an oven so will go to a friend's home to bake.  I did make some brownies in the rice cooker last week... a little burned on the bottom but that's because I forgot about them and left them in the rice cooker for about 6 hours,  :-)  The rice cooker automatically turned off but because I didn't remove them right away, condensation developed on the lid as the cooker cooled causing it to "rain" on the brownies.  Hoping to salvage the brownies,  I turned the rice cooker on again hoping to "re-cook" the rain soaked portion which was a success for the top half but also resulted in burning the bottom half.  Have I mentioned that each day brings a new adventure??

My "small world" experience this week was going to dinner Wednesday night with a family that lived in Minnesota for a couple of years.  Their son never attended Plymouth Creek but they have friends at PC ... what fun. :-)  We had a delightful evening talking about Minnesota and China.  They both also teach at the same university where I am but in different departments.  I plan to visit the elementary school where their son attends on Tuesday.  It is the school associated with the university so is close.

Seeing all the cute dogs around town makes me lonesome for my sister's dog because I loved going for walks and playing with him.  I've tried talking to him when I "face time" with my sister but so far he hasn't figured out how to utilize this wonderful technology and runs away when the ipad gets too close.  I hope you Minnesotans have all "dug out" from the big snow you had and are cozy and warm and enjoying the holiday season.

Shadow and my sister getting ready for Christmas

Shadow hoping for a treat --- I'm sure he misses me because I was usually good for at least one treat.

Xi'an city wall at night when walking home from city center market

school girls determined to get their picture taken

3 new power points have been added to the home page under "Info about Xi'an" on Shenzhen, A Bite of China (foods), and Traveling Around China.  These were all done by students in my oral class and they wanted to share with you.  I hope you enjoy them.

Mailing Address
Karla Thompson
School of Foreign Studies
Xi'an Jiaotong University
No 28 Xianning West Road Xi'an
Shaanxi Province
P.R. China 710049

I'm listening to Christmas music and enjoying my little tree as I write this week's update.  The only "really insane" thing I did this week was agree to sing a duet in church next Sunday.  I like singing but I'm more of a choir girl ... the bigger the group the better.  Oh well, the gal I'll sing with has a beautiful voice so I'll just try not to cause too much damage.

My big discovery this week was a Dunkin' Donuts ... a friend and I shared a chocolate with nuts but it wasn't quite the same taste as I remembered.  It's interesting how products have all been adapted for the local taste buds.  Even when you find an American product, it never tastes quite the same.  I guess they do taste testing and market analysis even in China. :-)

 

Everyone is busy with the end of the semester just around the corner.  Some classes end next week and others don't finish until December 28 with finals during the 2nd and 3rd week of January. The staff meeting was interesting this week with more discussion after the meeting than during the meeting.  The department is trying to make some changes that people aren't too happy about.  They would like to try some team teaching ... which they are defining as one person teaches a class for 8 weeks and then another person teaches the next 8 weeks.  The other "not popular" discussion was over the installation of video cameras in each of the classrooms.  This is supposedly to monitor cheating but the Chinese teachers are all calling the system "spy cameras."  They have already been installed in the rooms where we will be giving our final exams so we are to talk to our students and let them know about the cameras.

The lecture I was supposed to give last week was changed to this week so I thought I'd include a picture of the posters that are around campus.  It's always fun to hear from you but I don't always get messages posted on the blog so please use my email address:  karla.thompson@wayzata.k12.mn.us

Love the boots!

I've been collecting pictures of signs that are somewhat "lost in translation" that I thought you might enjoy.  I especially love this Sale sign - "Timed Panic Buying" - good description of a sale.

This in on a building next to where we have church and I love seeing it each week.

At the Xi'an Airport ... I agree that Xi'an is a happy and friendly city

Subway Sign

Pretty comprehensive sign :-)

Mailing Address
Karla Thompson
School of Foreign Studies
Xi'an Jiaotong University
No 28 Xianning West Road Xi'an
Shaanxi Province
P.R. China 710049

Christmas Came Early

What a fun surprise I had this week returning to my office on Monday and finding a box filled with fun reminders of home .... snacks, "real" hand lotion, "real" napkins, candles etc. etc.  Thank you so much!  It really was exciting to receive my first package in China and thinking of you made me smile all week. I'm giving a lecture tomorrow on American Education and I'm including pictures from Plymouth Creek so I've been a little nostalgic as well as feeling huge amounts of gratitude for each of you.

Wednesday I visited another elementary school and observed in several classrooms including teacher training in a science class.  The teachers have been very good and they are trying to move away from all rote learning to more student engagement.  It is interesting to observe the differences in teaching strategies.

Saturday I went with a couple of friends to visit a Foster Home with about 20 children under the age of three.  We helped to dress them for Christmas pictures and then played and read stories.  It was a wonderful experience and one I hope to repeat many more times.  It's a bit of a trip ... bus, subway and taxi ... which was a long wait because the facility is on the edge of town and not a lot of taxi traffic.  But it was well worth the effort.  We may try riding our bikes this spring.

My other big surprise this week was a new refrigerator.  That may sound like a silly surprise but I only had a little counter top, hotel style refrigerator.  I've included a before and after picture.  Small pleasures get to be pretty big when you're away from the conveniences of home. :-)

We have a staff meeting on Wednesday and will be talking about final exams, schedules etc.  It's hard to believe we are almost at the end of the first semester.  I've learned a lot but I continue to learn something new every day.  Sometimes it's the same thing I learned the day before.  Chinese is hard to learn.  I can't always hear the sounds and my mouth can't seem to replicate the correct sounds and tones.  The students are very helpful and enjoy laughing at me and it seems to help them relax and not be so self conscious about their English.

Almost every store now has Christmas decorations and Christmas music playing.  That was a big surprise.   Christmas is not a holiday in China so I didn't expect to see all the commercialism but it's here!   Life in China is certainly never "routine" or boring.  I hope you enjoy the photo journal for this first week of December.

Mailing Address
Karla Thompson
School of Foreign Studies
Xi'an Jiaotong University
No 28 Xianning West Road Xi'an
Shaanxi Province
P.R. China 710049

Experiments with water - everyone is wearing a coat because of no heat in the classrooms

Teacher training during class

Outside Metro

Neighborhood dog

Grocery Store

My living room 

My office

Old refrigerator

New Refrigerator - with a freezer :-)

Thermoses for students in dorms without hot water