silerquest

I’ve seen real chickens from afar, but yesterday was a slight challenge. I went to unlock my bike, by one of the dorms, when I saw and said, “There’s a chicken right there.” The bike was the only thing in between the chicken and I. I’ve never been that close to a real live walking chicken. Would it do anything? Would it get scared, like a cat and flip out?

I continued to carefully unlock my bike with no abrupt motions. All was well. The chicken walked the other way pecking around for food. I went on my merry way home.

I’ve felt that I’ve had a brain block of what to write. But this morning I was learning more Chinese with sweet Lynn; she taught me how to say I like writing. It made me think that I do like writing and I just need to try again.

The truth for me lately is that life has been simple for us. We did go away for Easter and spent a day in Beijing to celebrate Andy’s birthday (our teammate). Even those things, at this point, seemed “normal” as we live life here in China.

Recently we shared the song, I just called to say I love you by Stevie Wonder, with our students. I also taught them the word, sappy, which I heavily relate to. Inspired by this song and despite the sappiness, I write to say I love you.

Trying to remember Chinese student’s names is as simple as remembering the lyrics to a song played backwards. Adding to the confusion, they give you their last name first. To get around the problem, we gave our students the opportunity to choose their names, and I thought we were very clever in providing a pool of names to choose from. Without some supervision you’ll get three students in a class named Jenny, and others with names like Sky, Apple, Lemon, and Stone. Some work accidentally like Ivy or Joy. But even with our list of acceptable names, a few requested their own inventions, which is how one of our students came to go by the name Rock Lee. We really can’t break it to him that it sounds like Broccoli. The only fault with our plan is we didn’t create a big enough list of names, so each class was pulling names from the same list. This lead to the headache of having an Angie in every class, which between Shannon and I means we could know as many as eight girls named Angie, and trust me, they care that you remember. It also leads to the awkward situation of remembering one Angie more clearly than the others, so you have one girl you think of as “Angie” and another as “also Angie.”

Every once in a while, though, I’ll get the unique pleasure of naming a student. This is usually because I’ve met someone who knows English but is not an English major so no one ever bothered to christen them. I’m like Adam in Eden, giddy with excitement, getting to name everything with impunity. My usual approach is to ask their Chinese name and see if looking at them or hearing the general sound of their name reminds me of anything. Failing that, I will ask what their name means; sometimes it means “wise one” or “gentle river.” Sometimes this will trigger an idea. I sometimes will associate the name with their interest. One of the best examples of this was a girl studying social work: I named her Theresa. It’s a ritual I’ve come to take fairly seriously. Today I played basketball with a guy who I named Paul just cause he looked like one. I saw him later that day and called him by name. Seeing him stop and turn was a delight that’s hard to describe.

Working together with the team on club is thankfully a highlight for us in China. So many things could go wrong that mercifully don’t, and I routinely get the chance to practice playing guitar for a generous audience. What’s not to like?

This time we chose money as the theme of the evening. I think the subject matter made planning a little more difficult because money can be a divisive issue even among like-minded friends, so how do you talk about it with a different culture? You play games and sings songs, obviously.

We had addition competition, catching coins off elbows, jumping over money while holding toes, and a quick-draw out of a wallet duel. It’s great to see how excited the students get. I tried to teach them Can’t Buy Me Love by the Beatles, but the lyrics have a bounce to them that was difficult for the students to pick up since we teach the song a little slower. Love Me Do is still a hit with the hand motions, and we sped it up to keep things interesting. The highlight for me was getting to play and sing with Andy. We performed a slightly modified version of If I Had a Million Dollars by TBNL. We simplified some jokes and threw I some others about the Great Wall and i-phones, stuff they can relate to.

A number of students have told me I’m pretty good at guitar and then ask me how long I’ve been playing. Ten years is the reply. I’m never sure how to read their look of disappointment: did I just give the impression that it takes ten years for an average person to be moderately tolerable to listen to? The language barrier prevents me from explaining that I had almost no talent for the instrument or rhythm to work with or that “ten years” does not mean ten years of diligent practice and study.

As with the other clubs, we tried to choose a theme that will promote thought and lead to deeper questions. Last semester we took turns giving a talk at the end, but we’ve switched to a panel format because it’s easier and possibly more effective.

Each of us had to figure out what we wanted to communicate and how we could say it in a way that was helpful and not condescending or unrealistic. We settled on two basic questions: what’s something foolish you’ve done with your money, and what did you learn from the experience? Andy bought a hat he really didn’t need and never wore; Heather used her first pay check to buy a lot of furniture she couldn’t use; Shannon regretted not knowing what she’d spent her money on when she was in college; I talked about making a big purchase on a car without really doing my homework. The lessons were to buy what you need over what you want, use your money to bless others, make a budget, and get help on big purchases.

This was our second to last club, but the students still have a lot to look forward to. English week is coming in May!

Having one entrance to a campus of twenty thousand students can lead to some congestion problems which are more humorous than agonizing since its all feet and bicycles instead of tons of metal and road rage. I can’t imagine what it would be like if everyone had cars. As it is, I have enough of a hard time finding room to park my bicycle, and yes there are bicycle parking lots, and yes it is hilarious on a windy day.

The main road leading into campus is reserved for bicyclist and pedestrian traffic only. Blocks of concrete strewn on either end of the street divert cars to another road because, even though cars are a well maintained status symbol, the lay of the land still favors public transportation and small vehicles; so I get to navigate the hustle and bustle of everyday bike traffic. The lunch hour is the most chaotic with a steady stream of students coming in and out like blood cells through a capillary.

Since I’m an American, I’m usually in a relative hurry, or at least I haven’t learned the art of meandering astride two wheels on a pedal-driven recreational vehicle. I certainly don’t text while riding. Bikes are meant for speed; it’s how they work. Keeping pace with pedestrian while riding a bike makes as much sense to me as driving an SUV in Delaware and–oops! Must be the culture shock talking.

Anyway, due to said congestion, I was practicing my meandering skill. At this slower speed I observed a boy and a girl walking hand in hand together. This is unusual. I’ve seen girls holding hands with girls and even guys will walk arm in arm while wearing matching shirts, but a boy/girl coupling in public? Must be spring. It got me thinking about how different our cultures are; and more specifically, I felt sad to reflect on its contrast to my own. “If this were an American college campus,” I said to myself, “there would be couples smooching left and right!” Right then, what do you know? Another guy and girl turn to each other right in front of me surrounded by a torrent of students and proceed to go at each other’ s faces like they were bobbing for apples! I nearly wrecked; I felt sick and ashamed, like it was somehow my fault because I’d been thinking about it. It was the same kind of feeling you get when you hear a little kid curse.

It just goes to show: whatever you can say about a culture never fully applies to the individual. Boy! If that doesn’t make me sound just like an American!

Planning for our first club came really quick after returning from our staff conference. Since it was close to Valentine’s Day, we decided to have a love themed club.

Luke was in charge of the music and took this club as a great opportunity to share the love of his life- The Beatles. We sang two Beatles songs: Tell Me What You See and Love Me Do. Love Me Do was such a success, especially with Heather’s great hand motions. There was also a chance for the kids to shine by singing one of their favorite songs to us- My Heart will go on. We know this would not be a favorite among American college students, but it is adored in China.

Continuing the theme, we tried playing “Have a Seat”, otherwise known as “girls wrestle for guys” in YL. It is like playing musical chairs with humans. In this game the boys take a knee to act as chairs. The girls are supposed to lunge after the nearest guy when the music stops. In America, girls would probably take this as an opportunity to be close to boys, but this was not the case in our school. The girls were completely skittish, turning it into a game of “after you!” “No! After you!” We kept on encouraging them and showing them how, but it was probably a little too awkward for them. We changed our plan for the next night’s club; all girls!

The other game we played was “He says, She says” (I do enjoy that we make up our own names for our games.) This game was similar to Family Feud. Ahead of time, we actually polled our students in class to answer the questions. One of the questions was about who their hero was. The vast majority chose their parents. (I’d be interested to see what American college students would have to say.)

Normally we conclude our Club time with a talk. This time, instead of one person giving a talk, we had a panel discussion. It worked out perfectly since our team is comprised of two married couples. It was great to share about our spouses and what is most important to us in our relationship.

As usual, we probably learned a little more than we taught, but it was a great experience for all. Now to figure out what we’re going to do for the next club…

One of the greatest discoveries I’ve found in China is my legs. Turns out they can do a lot more than work a brake, gas pedal and clutch. We walk all over the place most every day, and if we’re in a hurry we ride our bicycle. Growing up, I’ve always suffered from what the locker-room might refer to as “chicken legs,” and make no mistake, I’m still quite lean, but now I have bulges which could pass for calves instead of the skin toned stilts I’ve been walking around on most of my life. Ironically my upper body hasn’t had much of anything to do, so when I look in the mirror I seem strangely inverted from the days I did push-ups and painted ceilings. But I’ve got to give credit where credit is due: The secret to my fitness is a 9ft wall.

The apartments at our school have always been right off campus, which means it’s been really easy to walk out one’s door and go hang with students, which is what we love to do, but events have transpired that have required us to earn the right to be with students. The exact reason for this change has never been made clear. Maybe the neighborhood surrounding the campus demanded it, maybe the officials wanted it to protect the students, maybe the school wanted us to get more exercise. The process took several weeks, but the end result is this: walls went up; gates were locked–there is now only one way to enter the campus. We walk the long way.

The best way to explain it is to make a map: