It is the beginning of our second week here in Hangzhou. I’m sitting here reflecting on what we’ve done so far and it’s hard to believe that it’s only been one week. There is so much to talk about that it’s going to be hard to condense it all into a few paragraphs - I’ll do my best to make my observations descriptive, yet brief ...
On Saturday, a group of teachers took all of us out for a tour of West Lake. We had a delicious lunch and then rented a boat for a 2 hour ride around the islands. Later that evening, Derek - one of the English teachers, invited me to his house for dinner. I had the pleasure of meeting his wife, mother, aunt and his 3-month-old son, Tiger. It was a lovely evening - his family couldn’t have been nicer. They made me feel so at home and insisted that I take some food with me when I left. The generosity and hospitality of the people I’ve met here in Hangzhou can’t be beat!! (Derek’s house, by the way, is beautifully decorated.)
On Sunday, the 3 students that are going to visit DS in the spring invited me out for another walk around the lake and for lunch at a famous restaurant known for its homemade noodles. These 3 students - Swan, Kevin & R.S. - are such great kids! They were very knowledgeable about the history of the areas we explored and they seem very excited to come visit our school. You guys are going to love them! I’ve attached a picture of them - they’re standing in front of the waterfall.
On Sunday evening, I was in desperate need of some Western food. I met up with a friend and we went to a bar called Reggae Cafe - the waitstaff had Bob Marley sweatshirts, there were some fun tunes playing on the radio and the menu had a lot of familiar dishes. I ordered Spaghetti Bolognese with garlic bread and I was in heaven. I needed this!
I have started to visit classes to do some guest-teaching. They’ve created a schedule for me where I visit 2 classes a day. I’m starting out with the Grade 1 classes. This high school has 3 grades, so the Grade 1 class is the equivalent of our 10th grade in the U.S. Each grade has about 600 students, so there are about 1,800 students in the school. The classes here are much bigger than at DS - there are about 45-50 kids in each class.
One very noticeable difference here is that the kids stay in the same room all day. When the bell rings, it’s the teachers that move from room to room. If I understand the system correctly, the kids stay with these same 50 students throughout their 3 years here. In our schools, most teachers have their own rooms and put up posters and student work - that’s not the case here. I believe the kids have 8 classes a day and they each last 45 minutes. The kids have about 15 minutes between classes, which makes their school day rather long. They start school around 8:00 and they leave around 5:00. When I told them that our school ends at 2:15, they went nuts.
I created a Power Point presentation to show the kids. I talk about my life, my family, NY and Pennsylvania (where I grew up), Boston, New England, DS schools and American education. After this, I give the kids a little Spanish lesson. It’s been a blast! They’re really interested in hearing about our school system. Most questions that I’ve been asked in the classes have been regarding the amount of homework that American students have. Evidently, the kids here get a lot of homework. When I ask the students what they do on the weekends, they usually say that they have to study.
Some of the kids are rather shy and hesitant to ask me questions. Others, however, are very eager to practice their English and ask me a lot of great questions. (Although some were hard to answer - “How are Spanish girls?” being one of them.) They seem to be very interested in hearing about what American kids do after school. One class was fascinated by the amount of extracurricular activities that are offered at our schools. Another aspect of our community that intrigues them is that our school is in a rural setting. Hangzhou High School is right in the middle of the city (6+ million people). Most of the kids can walk here or ride their bikes. A few take the city busses and others get driven to school.
I’m really getting a kick out of teaching the kids some Spanish. Most of them have never heard any Spanish before, so it’s been pretty cool to introduce them to something new. I’m just teaching them the basics - greetings, the alphabet, numbers, ¿Cómo te llamas?, ¿De dónde eres?...easy stuff. I’ve been walking around the room asking the kids “¿Cómo te llamas?” and I’ve been getting some interesting responses. Some of them answer with their Chinese names and some answer with their English names. As I mentioned in my previous post, some of the kids have traditional English names and others have rather interesting and creative ones. I asked a boy in one of the classes what his name was and he responded with “Me llamo Potato Tiger.” After 11 years of teaching, nothing really surprises me anymore. I just shook his hand, said “Mucho gusto” and moved on to the next kid. After my lessons, some of the kids come up and swarm around me. They’ve been asking me for my autograph, my e-mail address and hugs. It’s a hoot!
One thing I really like about the setup of the school is that the teachers have offices (grouped by department). It’s really nice to have my own space/cubicle and computer. What I absolutely love about this office is that many of the teachers take a nap around 1:00. They all have reclining chairs, blankets and pillows. They dim the lights, lock the door and take a 45 minute siesta. My next purchase is going to be an air mattress.
Lizzy, Colin, Ryan and I are also ‘hosting’ English Corner. After lunch, we stand out in the front lawn of the school and just chat with whomever decides to swing by to practice their English. The first day there weren’t many kids, but as they get to know us a little better, more and more are stopping by. Today, I would say there were about 30-40 kids. I’m very impressed with the how well they speak English!
Ok - now that I’ve told you about my experiences here at the school, I have to tell you about my neighbor, Tang, that lives in the apartment below mine. As Lizzy wrote in one of her posts, there is no escaping the cold in this city. The school (and any other indoor space in this country) does not use its heat unless it’s absolutely necessary. My little toe on my right foot is close to just snapping off. Everyone wears their jacket all day long. The doors and windows of the classrooms are wide open and nobody seems to mind the cold - except the 4 Americans that are shivering (Lizzy and I are the worst). So, when I get home, I can’t wait to turn on my heat - I need to thaw out!! The other night I was sound asleep and I woke up to what I figured out was my doorbell. I fall asleep to music, so in my groggy state I thought it was part of a song, so I just went right back to sleep. Then, I heard somebody banging on the gate that’s outside my apartment door. I opened the door and there was a lady standing there bundled up as if she were about to climb Mt. Everest. She started speaking in Chinese, obviously, and I just smiled and said “I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you’re saying.” She then started to try and speak in English and the first thing she said to me was “Jacket. Jacket. Drip. Drip.” She must have seen the confused look on my face and continued to try and use what English words she knew. I started to guess that maybe there was a leak in her apartment or that she thought I had hung clothes out to dry and they were dripping on her porch?? I had no idea what was going on. She then said “Close air conditioning.” (They don’t use the word ‘heat’, they refer to the heater as the air conditioner.) So, I figured maybe my ‘air conditioner’ was leaking. I never knew heaters could leak, but I offered to turn it off for the night. She said “Thank you” and left. I had trouble waking up in the morning because my eyelids were frozen shut.
Well...last night, around the same time of night, she rang my doorbell again. This time, she showed up with a hose and asked to come in to my apartment. I reluctantly let her in. She went into my bedroom and was hanging out of the window (I’m on the 7th floor, mind you) trying to connect this hose to the exhaust pipe of my ‘air conditioner’. She couldn’t fix the problem and was very distraught. She told me “No sleep! No sleep!”. I figured out that the dripping was hitting her awning and keeping her awake all night. I asked if she was sure that it was MY ‘air conditioner’ and she said “Only you use air conditioner”. As baffled as I was by the fact that my building enjoys living like polar bears, I offered to turn my bedroom ‘air conditioner’ off again and only use the ‘air conditioner’ in the living room with hopes that some heat would find its way to my bedroom. As she was leaving, she said “Thank you. Less air conditioner, more jacket”. I’m sorry - I’m more than willing to acclimate myself to the customs and norms of a culture, but wearing my boots, jeans, wool coat, gloves and scarf to bed is not an option. My mother, however, would be in full agreement with Tang. She would always refuse to turn up the heat when we were walking around the house in shorts and T-shirts. Anyway, I’ve informed some of the teachers here of the issue and hopefully somebody will call the maintenance people and have it fixed. I’ll be sure to give you an update on the Jacket! Jacket! Drip! Drip! situation in my next post. In the meantime, please send electric blankets, heat lamps, Snuggies, Spongebob Squarepants slippers - ANYTHING - to Chris Estabrook, Keep an American Warm Foundation, 238 Fengqi Lu, Hangzhou.
1 comment:
I love it. And we New Englanders think we're so tough.
Less Air Conditioner! Brett
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