At it again

It may be hard to start anew, but we often forget the lessons of the past and are thus allowed to move forward with more rewarding mistakes. I am "at it again" writing this blog, which begins in in December because I accidently erased it. I am "at it again" living abroad because I I erased from my memory the continous miscommunication and confusion of it. Luckly you can sit back in the comforts of your native language and culture and enjoy my adventures, hopefully with a laugh or snicker.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

3rd grade rocks

I love the third grade. It is an awesome age mid way into logical development where actions make sense only in the 3rd grade logic. They are more articulate than younger children and more precocious so you know what they are thinking, but they are not yet self-conscious and on their way to puberty.

We had a test in my third grade yesterday and as I collected the tests and imputed them into the computer, I couldn't find one. I asked the student and eventually a folded up test came out of his pencil box. My co-teacher sought and explanation and discovered the logic. He wanted to get 100% on the test, when he realized he couldn't, he decided just not to turn it in. Hum.

At my co-school we played a game where all the kids had to cover their eyes while I choose one student. In one class many peeked and my co-teacher gave them a lecture. On student said "Wo tou kan bu dao"- I didn't see any thing. To which my co-teacher responded "Ni tou kan bu dao haishi ni bu tou kan. Bu yiyang"- Basically you didn't see or you didn't look, they're not the same. But in the 3rd grade mind no seeing seems a reasonable excuse for guilt.

In 3rd grade the kids are also still super affectionate. At my co-school, the 3rd grades yell my name at every turn. I look to see what is wrong and I get a big smile and hello. No matter that is all they can manage to say. At my home school the girls always want to give me hugs and hold my hand. We went on a field trip yesterday and I had girls vying for each of my fingers. Plus, they wanted me to sit with them and insisted that I play rock paper scissors again and again, a game, by the way, that has lots of variations and can predict age, number of boyfriends and comes with lots of songs. Who knew.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Changing of the seasons

The swallows hace come (or are they starlings, I don't know). In the last few days I have seen tons of them gliding and darting above the rice fields. They seem to love the rice fields though they must be eating bugs above the rice because they never dart into the rice. So I've learned that swallows (or what ever they are) like rice. I've learned quite a few other things about rice here. For one, it grows like a weed. Rice planted less than a month ago is more than a foot tall now and makes a nice russling sound when the wind brushes through it. Other birds, namely egrets, like to be around when rice is harvested, probably a lot of good bugs churned up. I've also learned from a combination of observation and an article that rice does not need to be under water, it is just tolerant of that state of being semi submersed and it is a good weed provention technique. Finally you can plant rice with these tractors that just drop small plants every few inches. And I have yet to see an ox or yak in a rice field anywhere.

So now you know.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Another Taiwan Mainland difference

When planning for my teacher's class last week I looked for a topic that I though would be appealingto the teachers, one that could span many levels and one that I was interested in. I came up with the idea of ancestors and family history. I knew that many people on the mainland were interested in their family history and knew about it quite far back. I also was curious what my co-workers families were doing when the Qing fell and when the KMT took Taiwan as well as during the Japanese occupation period. Well the topic fell flat on it's butt. They did fine talking about their brothers and sisters and parents but many couldn't go beyond that. The just knew that at some point (200 or so years ago) their families had come over from Fujian. According to a few of the teachers if you were successful in Taiwan you would go back to Fujian and if not you were a failure and lost contact with the Fujian part of your family. Another person felt that since in the past many people died, life was not so worthy of being kept track of in the geneology sort of way. So now I know. I did learn that my perception that most of the people in education (I gleaned this from lord knows where) had family who came over with the KMT, was pretty clearly wrong.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

You'd think I'd learn

Long time followers of this blog will know that I accidently erased the whole thing sometime in December. Well you would think that I would learn not to mess with clicking yes to chinese language things. Well I didn't and I subsequently erased all the music from my ipod. Yup, that's me. I try to break into the world of technology and it can only go badly. It makes me wonder if the digital camera of my dreams is really a good idea. No need to cheer me up. I do that pretty well for myself plus Fiona describes my experience not as stupidity but as being adverturous. I like that, adventurous.

In other news it's raining again, I got to go to costco this weekend and bought real oatmeal. You have no idea how much I love oatmeal. In fact if you had told me that before I came here I would laugh. Thank Annalily for being a wonderful oatmeal chef.
I went to the hospital to get a Japanese incephilitus shot and had a conversation all in Chinese in which I was basically told the doctor didn't know who could do that for adults, they only give it to kids. So though I triumphantly visited the doctor myself and told him my needs in Chinese, I still probably have to go to Taipei. I'm also not sure if I will be able to stay after my visa runs out on August 1st. Looking into my crystal ball I see a pile of Chinese language buracratic trouble. But I might get something out of my ticket home that I thought I might just need to let float into oblivion so who knows, maybe I will farm for WOLF in Thailand for a month this summer. Or is that a bad idea, does that sound like going on a sailing trip from Tahiti to Hawaii? A good sounding idea with dire possiblities?

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Names

I added four new classes today at my co-school. They are 3rd and 4th graders and of course I had to introduce myself and it had to be pretty simple. I went around to all the students asking their names and telling them mine. Some of the names almost made me crack up and say really, I mean names like apple and bananna. Then I learned that my co-teacher gives the kids who have a really hard time names that are easy and that they will definately know, namely words from their phonics like apple and bannana. I hope these kids get better at English soon so they can get better names and I hope that they don't for some reason decide to keep them and end up applying to graduate school in the US with a name like Bannana Hua. On the upside there are 2 Lions and one Tiger. Tiger won a game and I couldn't help myself from saying Grrrrreat! Luckily I just look like a strange foreign teacher when I do that since children's cereals aren't too popular here.

Fearful possiblities, maybe?

Today two of my 3rd graders came into class saying to me "hen chao, hen chao" and I of course responded to them in English with "Yes, very noisy." That's when I realized that it was indeed noisy and the reason was because jets were flying overhead. Not one jet, but lots. And let me tell you, we are not in a flight path of anything. I have never heard jets before and I don't think there is a military base near by. Now, there is no problem at all, but I stood there inbetween classes where I had to loudly yell the lessons and wondered "what would happen if those were Chinese jets." What if today was the military takeover of Taiwan by China and I was having a beautiful day with my wonderful students an hour and a half train ride from where I assume an attack would take place- Taipei. Then I started to wonder what I would do if that happened. I would probably be whisked away by the American government, but it could be really interesting to see. I get the sense that it wouldn't be very violent and there would just be a fluid transitions to Communist strangness. Anyway, it won't happen this year and it won't happen while I'm here so don't you all worry over there. It's funny where your thoughts go when you hear jets.

By the way, can anyone tell me about podcasts?

Monday, March 13, 2006

For my arty friends

Today I taught a 5th grade ugly, pretty, dirty clean, polluted. I pulled a bunch of images out of magazines only I don't have to many magazines. I used an image of Patricia Piccinini's "Nature's Little Helpers." I wanted to let the students decide if it was pretty or ugly. Well I got a resounding "UGLY" out of the whole class and their were several students in one class who couldn't stop laughing every time I pulled the photo out. They were however very curious and wanted to know what it was and what it was made of. Plus I had a short but interesting little art discussion with my co-teacher about how the creature starts really ugly but becomes cute and endearing the more you look at it. So what I'm saying is, way to go contemporary art in classrooms. And sorry Patricia if you google yourself and find this. I think they would enjoy the piece if they were a bit older.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

My mamma is gone, what will I look forward to now

My mom came this weekend and we had a grand old time. She came in on Thursday afternoon after I had taught an awesome class on the three little pigs. I took the afternoon off and we went to lunch anf then to the market to by some fresh tuna for pan-seared tuna steaks. It was fun to see her grossed out by the things I've gotten used to- namely pig faces hanging on a hook. We also got our hair washed. Mom's massage was to hard and I didn't get a massage at all and then they put a funny currly-q in my hair and curled my mom's. We looked pretty funny, but our hair was exceptionally clean.

On Friday morning went to my school. Even my normally unshy students all ran away. I guess two Waiguoren is one too many. I showed mom my classroom, she took the requiest pictures and laughed at the somewhat awkward sentences I teach and have gotten used too. We hightailed it out of there and then went off to renshan. The weather was perfect, warm but a little cloudy. We hiked up to a waterfall and then I made my mom climb up about 100 too many stairs with the promise of monkeys. We saw a pretty garden, but I couldn't deliver the monkeys. We almost skipped sanqing temple but luckily didn't. I didn't think it would be very active on a Friday morning, but there were tons of people around worshipping and it was cool, even for me who sees temples every day. In the afternoon we went to Jiaoxi and got a foot reflexology massage. The guy was a big talker and I played translator with relative success. He like everyone else noted right away how young my mom looks and then he asked her her exact age. I guess it's good my mom looks young, maybe that runs in the genes, or maybe it's just that I already look old. After our massage we soaked in the lovely hot springs of Jiaoxi and then ate a well earned shabu- shabu dinner.

On Saturday we had a relaxing morning and then went up to Taipei. I tried to flex my Sadoku musceles for my mom on the train, but failed to finish the 5 starrer she gave me. In Taipei we checked into the luxurious Hyatt, met Colin and took the fastest elevator in the world to the tallest building, which, if you didn't know is in Taipei. We ate Greek food in the evening which gave me a bit of indigestion, new old foods, Ahhhh. I didn't sleep well because the bed was too soft after my board like bed, but Mom slept well though she hadn't on my bed so one of us go a good night's sleep each day. Consiquentially I woke up early and went down to the gym to run. I got to use a running machine like the one at Reed and realized I've become a much better runner. Maybe BBC helps. We ate an unbelievably western breakfast and then headed to the art museum. The show was only alright this time, but it was good to show Mom one of my favorite spots. We then had tea at the traditional Wisteria house and tried to have lunch at one of the most famous restaurants in Taipei. Note to self, you need a whole extra hour if you want to do that. BAck at the hotel I was really losing it to sleep deprivation and an upset stomach and I probably wasn't the best host those last few hours. Mom got on a bus and Colin and I waved her off. I went to the train station and started crying. I guess it was really sad to have her go so quick, especially since everyone Taiwanese I talked to expected her to stay for a month or so. I guess these two cultures really have diferent expectations for family visits across the ocean. Well, someone else better volunteer to come out and visit me so I have something else to look forward to. Otherwise, it might be a sad few months as I miss you all.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

And I thought my thesis would never come in handy

This is a post about how my thesis is serving a purpose, that being winning me things.
I was aware that no one outside of Reed was ever going to want to hear too much about my thesis so when I graduated I tucked all that information away for safe keeping. Sometimes it gets out but it usually runs into disinterested looks and retreats to safety. However sometimes it gets out and wins me things.

While I was in Beijing I was skimming the That's Beijing and ran across an article about Emperor Qianlong's love life. Now Qianlong and I spent a lot of time together as he ordered the creation of all the works I was studying and perhaps oddly so did his love life. The article presented a bunch of myths that erked me since I had spent weeks wading though crap like the thing I was ready to get to the truth of the matter. The matter? Among other things, the article talked about XiangFei, a muslim concubine of Qianlong's. Tale has it that he was so in love with her that he gave her everything, but she never submitted to him because he had killed her husband, the leader of a Uhyger tribe. In the end she was supposedly murdered by Qianlong's mother. Why does this relate to my thesis? She was also supposed to live in the European garden's whose prints I wrote about. The truth, thanks to Millward (click here to read the article if you have JSTOR, the interest and the time) that she existed, but did none of the things alleged and she didn't live in the gardes, infact no one did.

Anyway, (see I let that thesis dialogue loose again) I was irritated that the magazine was furthering falsehoods and with my fellow Reedie, Eben's urging and no real reason to go to bed, I wrote a letter to the magazine complaining and noting that the real interest in this story is not that "it could be true" but that is has recently come to be meaningful to Chinese resistance in Xinjiang (I put it more tactfully than that as I wouldn't want to be noticably counter revolutionary)and because it brings up the question most relavent to me, why did this concubine come to be associated with Europe when she was from what today is either Xingjiang or one of the 'stans.

The end of this story is that, not only did I get published, but I won the letter of the month award and a gift certificate to a fancy Thai restaurant in Beijing. Those of you out there just finishing up your drafts, know that there may be a future for that bulk of paper, even if you don't go get a PhD.

Here is the full letter though I think I summerized pretty well:

Although it is always enjoyable to read another article about the
endlessly amusing Emperor Qianlong, it's a shame that Ed Lanfranco
felt the need to perpetuate unlikely myths in his article "Qianlong's
Love Tales." Although Hope Danby's book may be "delightful" it is over
50 years old and more than a little outdated. A better source would
have been Jame's Milward's article "A Uyghur Muslim in Qianlong's
Court." This article effectively debunks the riveting Xiang Fei myth
through actual research, showing that she was probably not murdered
and that neither she nor any other individual ever lived in the
European palaces at the Yuan Mingyuan. Reality may not be as
interesting as myth on the surface, but the light shed on eighteenth
century thought about Uyghur Qing relations and their resonances is
much more rewarding. In addition it should be noted that Heshen was
not executed for being Qianlong's lover as the article suggests, but
for the incredible corruption he was involved in.

-Ariel Jacobs

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Mountain climbing and new schools

So I am typing today from a new computer at a new school. No, no exciting problems, it's just the part of the program where we add a new school 2 days a week. My schedule is Monday and Friday at Dongxing elementary school. So far so good, everyone is very nice to me, the school is about the same size as Zhongxing, the food tastes just as bad and the kids find me very interesting. I have done short five minute introductions in 3 classes, but that's it. I'm not sure how I'm going to fit in especially since at this moment most of the class is taught in Chinese. Will they understand a word I say? Will my new co-teacher insist on translating everything or will I not have a roll big enough to make that matter. I'm just pleased that on Friday afternoon I get to hang out with the art club.

Speaking of art clubs we (Annalily, Katherine and I) met with our Yilan University club. After riding my bike Saturday to renshan (a mountain area near my house)and finding a lovely botanical garden and a slightly strange English garden all by myself, it turned out that that was the same place we were going on Sunday with our art group. Oops, no big deal though, the second time we saw monkeys and of course I took pictures like a good old tourist. We had 4 participants and we tried to get everyone to draw some part of this pond. I showed the students my crazy old school camera (have I mentioned that I really want the new Nikon D200?) and then sat down with Annalily and Katherine to draw. No one else did, at least not until they got really bored with waiting for us. Next time we might do some drawing games to loosen them up, or change the club from Art to visiting gardens, since that seems to be the trend. The students are really nice and it's good to be around people who aren't entirely sure what they are doing with their life either. I also met with my host mom for the first time though we have been assigned since October or something like that. It was fun, she speaks good English and doesn't feel the need to steer my life like my other host mom.

My real mom is getting into town today and coming down on Thursday. This means I get to take a day off and that I washed all my towels.