Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving?

Tonight, my tutor and I were discussing that this Thursday is Thanksgiving in the U.S. and my plans for the day. Then, she asked me, "Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving?" So in my very basic Chinese, this is what I managed to spit out:

"Many years ago, the Europeans came to America. They did not know how to cook, so they were very hungry. The people living in America, before the Europeans came, knew how to cook. They helped the Europeans, so they did not die, so they gave many thanks. Now, families come together and eat a whole lot of food, and give thanks for what they have."

It was pretty amusing rendition of the first Thanksgiving; nevertheless, I think I managed to get the point across.

Dumplings! (饺子 - Jiao zi)

One of our favorite foods in Jilin is dumplings. We were disappointed before because we missed the festival when each person is supposed to eat 100 dumplings, regardless, we've eaten our fair share of dumplings here.

Thus, this past Saturday, Matt, Kevin, Jim, Jenny and I went shopping to make a whole bunch of dumplings. It was a success and by the end of the night, we had our share plus tons to freeze. We spent several hours chopping, rolling out dough, making and boiling dumplings, oh and of course, eating our product, while we worked.
Kevin, the dough master












Rolling out the dough into small patties
(Can you tell which hands are mine?)












Dumpling stuffing: assorted meats and egg based fillings












Jim, Kevin, Jenny and I working the dough.

First Snow

Today marks the onslaught of snow here in Jilin. Its been snowing steadily for about 12 hours now and has covered the campus in white. This has made walking treacherous because the combination of precipitation on top of the "red tiles of death" equals very slippery, concluding in a big wipe out.

In Chinese comprehension class today, most of the students were wistfully looking out the windows at the falling snowflakes, totally not paying attention to our teacher. She, being the great person that she is, totally understood, as most of our class is originally from different countries in Africa and have never seen snow before. She let us out a little early, so that we could frolic in the snow.

Bei Hua Da Xue Library (北华大學圖书馆)

Kevin and Matt enjoying the snow, outside our usual lunch spot, which we affectionately call the Muslim Noodle Place.

Recovering...

Earlier this week, I came down with a nasty bug and was out of commission for a few days. I'm not quite sure of the origins since I'm pretty sure it was from a meal, but no one else became ill. Regardless, I was definitely not feeling up for class and had to cancel two periods and then be loopy for most of my Tuesday afternoon class.

While I did not have enough energy for class, I did have it in me to lie in bed and catch up on Project Runway Season 3, from last year, since I hadn't seen most of shows, as I was cable-less. I also managed to learn a children's Chinese riddle, which I attempted to recite, in Chinese, to my students in my loopy state, which did not go over well. My student asked me if I was speaking Chinese.

I think its so interesting that even though we, more or less, have the same animals all over the world, we have different animal sounds. For example, in the Chinese riddle, the frog says, "呱呱呱" (gua, gua, gua) which is different from how Americans view the amphibian's vocal contributions to pond life.

Also, at the beginning of the "semester" with my seniors, when they found out I spoke Spanish, they said, "oh, I hear that there are many beautiful Spanish songs, can you sing us one?" Unfortunately for them, I conceded and sang them "De Colores" which I successfully butchered. Regardless, there's all sorts of farm animal noises that stray from our conventional cock-a-doodle-doos and high-pitched peeps. Anyhoo, De Colores is a catchy tune, which you can hear in the movie "Romero," a powerful, life-changing film about Oscar Romero that takes place in El Salvador.

Surgery

I just learned how to say "surgery" in Chinese, 外科 (waike), no worries, I did not have to utilize my dictionary because I was in the hospital. So, dorky me thinks this is so cool because a literal translation is 'department of out.' In other words, the department where things are taken out, which believe you me, surgeons, more likely than not, want to do. 外科, pretty nifty, eh?

In other news, I am halfway done with my teaching marathon. I think between prepping for class, teaching, going to Chinese class, Chinese tutors, and studying Chinese, time has evaporated quickly. Its challenging to teach 5-6 different 2 hour lessons each week and while I already had a great deal of respect for teachers, it has grown exponentially.

For those of you interested: Project Runway Season 4 starts on November 14th. Its a fabulous show that showcases up and coming, talented fashion designers. Its interesting to see the process from the challenge to the sketches to the execution of a garment. Plus there's, of course, great drama and humor. I won't be able to watch it on TV, tear. However, I think I'll be able to find it on Chinese Internet. Hooray!

Guest teacher

Disclaimer: this happened 2 weeks ago and I forgot to tell you about it, so it goes.

Everyday, Jenny has a class in the afternoon for about 25 minutes, where she is free to teach anything. She usually does something English-related. I had previously been giving a spattering of American Sign Language (ASL) signs ranging from the alphabet to pineapple. Thus, she thought it would be interesting if I came in and did the alphabet and whatever else came up.

I was more than happy to do it as I enjoy hanging out with little munchkins. What I failed to realize was that it would be with 40 students during their last period of their day. They were quiet a handful, but Jenny is SO great at shuting them, uh, I mean, quieting them down. It was a lot of fun teaching them the ABCs of ASL and they went crazy over signs like 'hamburger' and 'pineapple'. (I found a website that shows ASL signs in video)

To top it off, at the end of class, the little guys and gals stormed the front room, shoving pens and papers into my hand, asking me for my signature. I felt like an instant celebrity and wanted to get out fast. Those little kids are strong! (and some need baths)

Its was a great way to spend the afternoon and Jenny has since told me that the kiddos are asking for me to come back. Maybe I'll ask my friends to be my bodyguards...

A Banana in Mini-English Corner

After class, I met with a student of mine so that she could practice speaking English with me. She ended up leaving around half-past 5 so that I could study a little bit of Chinese before I met with my tutor. As I was reviewing, a small band of students migrated in, eager to practice their English with me, before their English-Corner at 6pm. English Corner is weekly, where the foreign teachers and English majors meet and practice their oral English. I had met some of them before and I didn't mind taking a few minutes to converse with them.

They were very curious why I looked like them, but could speak English so well AND why didn't I speak Chinese. One girl said, "You are an ABC (American Born Chinese)!". I nodded my head, as I couldn't speak since my mouth was full with banana. She then pointed at my hand gripping the banana and exclaimed, "We also call you a 'banana'!". I sort of chuckled and slightly nodded my head.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this term, calling a Chinese person basically means: "you are yellow on the outside and white on the inside." Thus, you are a banana; you look Chinese on the outside, but your insides are white. I don't mind being named an ABC because for the most part that's true, but I feel that while I grew up in America, I definitely have some Chinese values and beliefs in me. While I know she did not mean that as an insult, I usually associate the labeling of 'banana' as someone who is not happy being Chinese and wanting to be "white"; this is NOT the case with me. Speaking of bananas, a few weeks ago, I took a picture of my twin banana (no, the banana did not look like me):

Although I am proud of being Chinese-American, in class today, a student asked me which country I felt more patriotic for: China or the United States. I explained to her that I was born and raised in America, so of course, I have more patriotic feelings for the U.S. (even though we've done alot of crummy things in a myriad of places in the world), but I am also extremely proud of my heritage.

We then talked about China-Japan relations. This was a huge issue for her, understandably so, as the Japanese have committed many, unspeakable atrocities, especially in Nanjing, which has been called "The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II" by Iris Chang, in her book, 'The Rape of Nanking'. I highly recommend this book (while researching this a little bit on the web, I just found out, even though this happened in 2004, that Iris Change committed suicide, you can read about it here, if you have NY Times access, if you don't, sorry, I can't afford the $1,000 to share it with everyone).

My student asked me about my feelings towards Japanese people. I explained that while I realize that the Japanese committed many atrocities, it happened in the past and I do not harbor any ill-feelings towards currently. However, I disagree with the Japanese government's policy about covering up what Japanese soldiers did during WWII. The government has given their citizens' a revisionist history of what happened. While I understand that the leaders want to foster nationalism, I don't agree with it. Japan, however, is not alone in rewriting history, I think many countries are guilty of this, especially the U.S. Nevertheless, people can still feel proud of their country and know what past atrocities have been committed.

On another note, one of the students guessed that I'm 19 years old, that kind of nice, I guess. I think my hair is getting out of control. I am in serious need of one, but I'm trying to figure out a different hairstyle. Any suggestions?

Chillin' Jilin Halloween Bash

Last night, our first shindig of the year was a success! We had a potluck Halloween party and invited our fellow foreign teachers, classmates and friends. Our costumes went over well with the crowds: Jim was a construction worker, Matt wrapped himself in toilet paper, to be a mummy, Kevin had a toilet seat cozy, toilet paper and a mini plunger to imitate a toilet and my costume turned out pretty nicely, as Astroboy, whom the Koreans call “Atom”.

At first I wasn’t sure how my costume would go over since it was black underwear over skin colored long johns, but I think the red soccer socks brought the costume together.

The food was great ranging from Vegetarian Chili to Korean Rice balls with hot sauce. Due to the international flair (Mozambique, Korea, Japan, etc) of the party, most everyone was communicating in Chinese; we named it "Chinese Corner", named after "English Corner", which we hold for the Chinese students during the evening. Pictures are below and posted here.











Ashley, Sannai, Wakana, and Joo






Lion and Moi
(There's an Astroboy sticker on my belt)











The Mummy and Ashley















"Death by Plunger"