No No, you eat it like this…

Do you know how to use chopsticks?

Chinese people love asking this question. My answer is usually, ” Well yes if I didn’t I would starve.” They are absolutely flabbergasted when you tell them that chopsticks exist in other countries.

This past week I took my students Kelly and Elaine out for Suzie’s Pizza. It was to celebrate Kelly’s article that was published in an NBA magazine (in Chinese, but she translated it for me so i could read it) and Elaine for winning the top prize at an English speech competition. Yes, my students are amazing. When we got our pizza they took their fork and knife and asked, “ok what do we do now?” Ahh I loved it! I told them to put their utensils down and hope their hands were clean because this is how you properly eat pizza.

Kelly and Elaine

Learning English in China

A couple weeks ago Sam and I were asked to audio record a Medical Textbook published by the 3rd Military Medical University. I was also asked to proofread the text and video portions.

The wonderful part of the audio recording was that the pronunciation was to be in British English. They had the phonetics for the vocabulary which were actually no help at all because 1) I don’t ever remember learning words using phonetics, and 2) I had never even seen this system of phonetics before. Not only that but even simple words like antibodies and external were tripping us up.( anteeebodies and eeexternal) Now, if you have ever been in any of my classes at Drake you will know that I am no genius when it comes to pronunciation of scientific terms, so to throw in the British English phonetics, it was a rough road. Between my American accent and my Chicago accent I slowly managed to hide my whining of a’s and i’s. So thankful for Cathy ( representative from the Med School working with us) for helping us get through! Words like hepadnavirus will never escape me…

aside from the a’s and i’s situation, inflection seemed to be another issue

when words you know you know, but yet, you need to pronounce them in an entirely different way

The proofreading part (while exhausting) was kind of a great experience! Throughout college we have all gone through many textbooks that we would rather forget about, there were ones we liked and ones we wanted to throw out the window. I can remember a handful of them that I just couldn’t stand because of how they were formatted and organized. Well, I guess this was my chance to make the slightest difference in the world of textbooks. The book was an English Medical Textbook so the point was to maximize the vocabulary, kind of reminded me of an intro to physiology/anatomy class. Since the students already know the context/science the book was allowed to go from very large scale to microscopic in a matter of a page, or give very obscure examples with not-so-common diseases. Overall it was a great experience and I am so thankful for SISU and the Third Military Medical University for the opportunity!

Thankful Laowai

Thanksgiving 2012 didn’t consist of my family or a proper Thanksgiving meal, but filled with amazing friends and full stomachs .

Lily, Bailey and I got up early and made a Thanksgiving Breakfast

Spent the day at a coffee shop and roaming around Shapingba

My lovely friend Rex made me a Thanksgiving card….so thankful

Rex, Katie, Lily and I decided it was time to make our mark at Helen’s

Our Thanksgiving Dinner

Rex and Clémence, what gems

Katie and Michael

Jack, Michael, and Jack

Zoe, Anne, Jason, and I

(Insert cliché thankful quote here)

As the holidays are approaching and the year is ending people start to meditate on what they are thankful for and what matters to them. Being in China I have a lot to be thankful for and I have a lot of people to thank. However, I am going to dedicate this post to how thankful I am for my family.

I’m thankful for the times when I get to facetime with my dad on his way to work, or dad and Michelle while they are eating breakfast.

I’m thankful for the time that my family spends reading my long and sometimes exhausting emails.

I’m thankful for the family that responds to my emails with updates on what is going on back at home.

I’m thankful for all the positive energy my family gave me this summer and while I am here in China.

I’m thankful for facebook and instagram so I can see all the babies in my family grow up (way to fast).

I’m thankful for all the new family members I get to meet when I come home!

I’m thankful that I have such an awesome family that I can talk and brag about.

I’m thankful that I have a family to go home to.

I’m thankful for the unconventional definition I have of family.

While my celebrating (feasting) will be at a minimum this year, I hope everyone enjoys their holidays and eats an extra serving of everything for me!

Love you all

Public Transportation

I love public transportation, I think it brings a sense of community to a city. Being a laowai with little sense of direction and Chinese, i depend on it. Living in Chongqing, public transportation is necessary to get anywhere outside of your district (or sometimes within). The busses here are the best, such a show, there is no maximum capacity so the driver will allow piles of people to come on, people are literally on top of each other. Every now and then you get the pleasure of sitting next to a sweet little kid who’s parents let them climb all over you, love it.

waiting for the bus

Chongqing bus experience

A subway where you don’t feel like it could break down at any moment or that you might catch a disease? It exist fellow Chicagoans! The metro is a monorail, and similar to the El it goes above and below ground so you can get a beautiful view of the city along the river. The metro too is often very pact, but never uncomfortable. My favorite part is watching  elderly people come on and without hesitation a younger person will get up from their seat to let them sit down. I really admire the respect that people have for the older generations here, something you don’t see as often in America.

The Metro

Lastly we have the taxis’. Not as community-driven, but still worth mentioning. Like in many cities, taxis’ own the road, they will do anything to not stop. We were advised to never look straight ahead while riding in a taxi because you will probably feel like you are about to get into an accident, this is true. I have a special place in my heart for taxis since recently. I had lost my wallet over the Halloween weekend, thinking that it was stolen out of my purse. Turns out it fell out of my purse when I was in a taxi ( yes, irresponsible) because the taxi driver was generous enough to track me down and return it to me without a thing missing from it. Not only that, but he didn’t want to accept money from me (throwing it into the passengers seat and walking away worked through) and didn’t want to provide his information so that we could send a good report to the taxi company. Although not the best situation to be in (and it could have been lot worse) I was reminded that good people exist and to be thankful for all the fabulous people here at SISU that helped me.

 

#America

I am thankful that I am an informed American citizen with the right to vote. Thank you America.

Congratulations Mr. President

 

 

Garden EXPO

Two of my students brought Ann and I to the Garden EXPO one afternoon. Basically its this massive park that you can walk or take a bus through. Each section is representative of a Province or city in China, or a different country.  We weren’t sure what to expect and I can only really describe it through pictures.

I suggest playing ‘Its a small world’ while looking through the images. I had weird flashbacks of being at Disneyland (More images on Flickr).

Ann and I in true tourist fashion. My students insisted that we take the bus around the park, so of course we picked the sweet seats in the back

My students and wonderful tour guides, Tyler and Lamb.

One of my favorite pieces, statue of a woman who served as a general in war. I just love how independent and strong she looks.

These stood in front of a statue of a famous judge. According to my students these represent justice, and some how these were use to kill people??

This reminded me of the tea pot ride at Disneyland

These next photos reminded me of the Rose Bowl Parade….kind of strange, but pretty impressive

Had to capture this moment.

 

 

Exploring Home

This week we celebrated Mid-Autumn Day and National Day, so we had the week off.

For more picture please see my photos page

Chaotianmen, where the Yangtze River and Jialing River meet

You can actually see where the rivers come together

Happy National Day!

Liberation Monument originally called “Monument of Victory in the War of Resistance” in Jiefangbei

Suzie’s Pizza in Shapingba…we made it on the wall. Suzie also invited us to come cook with her so we can share recipes!

Big Golden Buddha, Hua Yan Temple, Chongqing

according to one the students with us this guy uses his lute to defeat others by making them dizzy

The group, two of Clémence’s students were kind enough to come with us and be our guides

This little girl turned around and saw a herd of foreigners coming, she couldn’t hide her emotion, precious.

Let’s Go Fly A Kite…

…and send it soaring up through the atmosphere up where the air is clear…

Don’t ask me why but I had this song in my head while I was climbing The Mountain today.

The Mountain ( part of the way up)

The closest thing I can find to the Drake Squirrel

my path

My view

A cave along the side of the path

Of course I had to make Dad proud and wonder off the path…

on top of the rock…good news! I didn’t fall!

another view from the top of the rock

I made it! Overall it was a pretty successful hike, I was able to find a spot to sit and read my book and eat lunch. Next time I’m hoping to find a path with a better view of the city down below