Letters from students

This will perhaps be my favorite post so far.  In the last weeks, I have received countless letters and drawings and gifts from students.  Because I cannot take them all with me, I decided to type up the messages.  The are priceless.  I have left all the errors and grammar in tact. The following has not been fabricated in the least. These are some from mostly grades 4 and 5:
_________

Jenny, you in Meishan Primary School teaching for a year, I am here to say “thank you”, Jenny, I really like your English class, you are pretty, but you are going back to the USA, we are very reluctant to you, Jenny, you have to remember, no matter where, do not forget me!  I wish: Happy every day, every day happy.  As long as happy, ok!  Forget me not.

-Mary

Hollo!  Jenny go to Chinses at hrppy!

Thanks for the days stayying with us.  They are so enjoyful and interesting.

Thank you teacher us English for one year.  Your country’s fun.  Now you have to go I am very reluctant to you.  I hope you can come back to have a look!

-Gredy

Bye bye teacher, I love you.

Dear Miss Janey: We all like having you as our teacher.  You have our respect and gratefulness.  Goodbye! I’m a girl.

-Class 3 grade 1 Candy. 

Dear Jenny:  Jenny is good English teacher!  I like your class.  I can see preey Jenny!  She have grey eyes, big nose, red month.  I love you!  Don’t forget China, China friends, and us Meishan Primary School.

-Hejingnan

Thank you, Jenny teacher, you are the months come to teach us English, we are very happy.  Back to the United States of America must think we!

-Wang Lin

I can think for you!  I think you can come to our Meishan school again!  Wish you happy every day!

-Jerry

Hi! Miss Jian.  Thank you very much!  You are welcome.  I like you. 

Jenny I like you.  Jenny’s.  I like Jenny you.  Jenny bay-bay.

Dear teacher, I know you will go back to your country. We feel unhappy.  We all love you very much.  We will miss you very much!

-your student, Wang Shaomin

Jenny:  Teacher, thank you for a year on our education.  Now, you are back to the United States.  At this point, I’m really a bit unwilling. I wish you were my teacher.  After you return home, I will work harder to learn English.

-Huang Kailing

A letter to the Jenny teacher:

Thank you Jenny teacher to teach us and teach us to knowledge, but you will have to go back to your hometown – the United States of America.  Even if you have to go back to your hometown – the United States of America, but my in China, also will not forget you teach us knowledge. I like you very mush Jenny teacher!

-Fu Junhao grade 5

I’m your student Rong Xiao Bing.  I’m in class three grade five.  I heard that you will leave school, I feel very sad.  Because you’re our best oral English teacher.  When will you come back to teach us?  I hope you can write back.

-Grade 5 student

Dear Miss Jenny, Thanks for teaching us spoken English. You’re our best teacher.  When will you come back teaching us?  What’s your QQ and email?  What are you going to be?  Good luck.  God bless you.  Amen.

-Li Zhaoyuan (Lizzy) grade 5

Dear Jenny, Where are you to doing?  What do you do?  Will you come back? We will miss you.  Wish you have a good vacation.  Have a good.  I hope you come back.  We always welcome you back.  Thank you for teathing us.

-Roy grade 5

Dear Miss Jenny,  I name is Peter.  Thanks for teaching us English.  What’s your QQ and email?  What are you going to be?  When will you come back teaching?  Happy every day for you!

-Peter grade 5

Dear Jenny, I’m Tin Tin.  I like your lessons.  Because your lessons are fun.  Your lessons don’t like some teachers, they are boring.  What’s your email?  What’s your telephone number?  You teach us 1 year.  We like you very much.  If you go, all I can say “good luck”.  God bless you.  Amen.

-Tin Tin grade 5

Dear Jenny, your class is very interesting.  I like your class very much.  I will remember everything you taught to us.  I like way you teach.  I don’t want you to go, because you are such a great teach.  Thanks you for everything.  Take care

-Shu Wuwei grade 5

I am not an outstanding student of yours, but you are the most respectable teacher to me in my eyes.  On this special day, I extend my heartfelt respects to you!

-Deng Xin Grade 5

Thanks for teachingus Englis.  You’re our best teacher.

- Grade 5 student

No formula can be used to calculate your devotion;  no poems and songs to express our heartfelt gratitude to you.  It is you that cultivate our minds with your extensive knowledge and your noble spirits.  On this special occasion, please accept our best wishes!

-Betty and Sam grade 5

I wish you a happy voyage.  Wish you, happy every day!  Hope the next time you come to our school to teach us!

-Xu Weilong grade 5

Dear Jenny, you wollen go to back the USA. I have a lot of words for you. I like in your class, because you are a good teacher.  I like to see you, because you are a beautiful teacher, I like your beautiful.  And do you like me?  Do you like China?  When I go to the USA, I will see you.

-Love, Wuyisi grade 5

To a very dear Jenny teacher:  Nice to meet you.  My name is YiyiXi, is a 5(3) classes of students.  I like listening to your course, becaure your lessons is very fun.  You came, I to you always full of curiosity, so don’t stop looking for your signature, I was rude behavior.  You are in my mind always be courteous, more is very intimate good friend.  We love you forever – interesting foreign teacher.

-Forever love you, forever can miss you!  YiyiXi

Jenny, 我不会写英文 I’m a sorry! 对不起J

- Grade 5 student

In the United States you have a good?  I hope to have a very good.  Happy birthday to you hert!

-Linda grade 4

Tomorrow is the last time we met you are the best teacher in the world English teacher.  I wish you a happy return J

-Luo Fan grade 4

You are the most beautiful!  Thank you Jenny’s I love you!  I’m Chen Ying.  I’m four class four female students.  You look very young, and beautiful, and white, and I wish you a happy return.  A hard teacher!

-Chen Ying grade 4

Dear Jenny teacher:  Hello.  Thank you very much for this period of time to teach us, you taught us a lot of knowledge, in this last lesson, we should treasure the last lesson, teacher Jenny.  We didn’t do anything for you, but I will bless you forever, I wish you a safe life!

-grade 4 student

She is my teacher Zhenne she have big eyes.  She is beautiful.  I love Jenny!

-Mimi grade 4

I will miss you Jnney! While you go, but I believe we will meet in earth elsewhere. I am waiting for this day.  I would be very very miss you, really.  I am not willing to you’re gone, I am a little sad.  At this poing, to send you a song:  You raise me up.  You wait, the day we meet again.  We will meet again, so good-bye.  Happy birthday!

-grade 4 student 

Children's Day talent show

June 1st is international Children's Day, which you would know if you lived outside the US because apparently all the countries celebrate these holidays but us.  Which meant that my primary school was off for the day, and the day before my kids put on a talent show.  They were so cute!  And some of them are really talented!  There was singing, dancing, recorders and violins and keyboards that are powered by blowing into a tube.  It was a lot of fun to experience, here are some videos and picture for you to enjoy!

I know we're not supposed to have favorites.... But look at these 2nd grade ballerinas!!

A grade five girl performing a Mongolian dance

A very talented girl playing the traditional Chinese guzheng

These are little keyboards you play by blowing air into.  So funny.

The cha cha is pretty popular here

Massages

At long last, I've discovered one of the best parts of China -- the massages.  We were feeling pretty worn down a few days ago and so went to a parlor our friend new about.  We had a body massage and it was amazing.  The ladies here mean business, no gentle touching here!  It was a bit painful but definitely the good kind of pain.  And they were so cute too!  The whole time they wanted to chat with us and joke around.  Afterwards we felt so much better.  The best part?  It only cost Y60! (~$10 USD!).   I was so enamored that I talked Thomas in to going back to try a foot massage two days later.  That was amazing too.  It hurt even more, but it was a nice remedy for my sore feet.  And then while that was happening my colleague called and asked if I would go with her for a foot massage the next day!  That's not something I can say no to because I feel like it's important to have a relationship with my colleagues when I'm able, so today I went again.  Oh, darn. :P  This is has been the best week ever.
I hope you're reading this, mom.  You would come to China for the massages alone.

No commercials?!

Something that can happen in China and not in the US -- commercial free TV.  This newspaper (Shenzhen Daily) is not known for its accuracy, specificity, or understandibility, but that seems to be the gist of the article.  In fact, since this article actually names the firm it is far ahead of most that I read in this paper.  Newspaper flaws aside, I know the Americans reading this will be jealous and I had to share:

Ads to be banned during TV dramas

2011-November-29  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

CHINA’S top broadcasting watchdog has ordered a national ban on all TV stations airing commercials during TV dramas. The new ban will take effect Jan. 1, and all TV stations must rearrange their programs to delete all commercials during TV dramas or face strict punishment, said the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) on its Web site yesterday. A microblog survey conducted by Sina.com showed the majority of people are in favor of the ban. About 85 percent of nearly 10,000 respondents say TV commercials are so annoying that they support the ban. Some advocates complain there are now so many commercials that sometimes it’s like fragmented TV dramas are inserted into a nonstop relay of advertisements, ruining the viewing experience. Still, 11 percent of respondents opposed the ban saying the market should not be subject to excessive administrative regulations. Some questioned whether local TV stations would abide by the ban because it would allegedly cost 20 billion yuan (US$3.13 billion) in lost advertising revenue. The ban is among SARFT’s latest efforts to regulate the country’s once-rampant TV commercials. Last month, SARFT ordered a ban on sex-related commercials on radio and TV. The administration also said commercial advertisements should not be aired under the guise of a news report, or in the form of a news interview. (SD-Agencies)

Fire drills in China are AWESOME.

American school kids have found memories of fire drills because we got to line up and file out in the middle of class, to stand somewhere far away from the school and wait to be let back in.  Mostly, we were happy that we missed five or ten minutes of class every month.
Fire drills in China are apparently a little bit different.
This morning I'm working in my office when all of a sudden a loud alarm starts going off.  I am less alarmed than one might imagine because the alarm is less of a shock than the air-raid sirens that went off last month (I think that was an earthquake drill?), and more just in the mood of oh-boy-what-now.
I walk outside and into a cloud of billowing orange smoke. Yup.  And children sprinting by towards the field.  At fire drills here they literally set off smoke bombs to make a more realistic effect, and the students are encouraged to get to the field as fast as possible.  It was so much more exciting than back home.
On the field, they even did a fire demo where they repeatedly lit a can of wood on fire and let the administration try to put it out with fire extinguishers.
The timing for every student to get there little butts on the field was 24 seconds.  24 seconds for a school of about 800-1,000 students (still not sure on the count) to empty out.  I was extremely impressed, but apparently that was a whole 7 seconds slower than they had done last term, so the kids got criticized haha.
So, in summary, fire drills here are awesome.

Also, thank you mom for my camera phone, without which I wouldn't have been able to capture this surprise.

Sprinting through one of the smoke bombs

Hurrying down the stairs

Fire demo on the field

Drills and jingle bells

Every (single) morning, I wake up to... wait for it... jingle bells.  Yeah, not joking.  The christmas song.  It is played throughout the day, varying with non-recognizable kinds tunes. For you see, Chinese schools are run differently than American ones.  Bells do not exist.  Songs, including jingle bells, usher in every thinkable event at the school.  Arriving, period starting, period ending, flag ceremony beginning, flag ceremony ending, break time, protect eye exercise time, broadcasting time, practice handwriting time, lunch starting, nap time starting, nap time ending, lunch ending, etc etc etc.  While this used to drive me crazy, it's become a part of the day and every now and then I can actually recognize which song is playing for what event.
To add to this gem of hilarity (I asked, they don't know they're playing christmas music), the kids are also constantly drilled to exercise and prepare for military training -- which every person goes through even though there's not mandatory service.  This means that the highlight of my week days is at 9am, when the entire primary school marches outside (yes, to music) to practice marching and drills.  Why is this the highlight?  Because they're 7-11 years old, and therefore adorable.  I finally snuck a picture this week to share my enjoyment with you.

This is the view from my office.  Frankly, I have no idea what they're doing half the time but I love it anyways.  Just try and picture 500 primary students trying to march in neat little rows for the flag ceremony.  Haha!

Xi'an -- Good Company

Ok, sorry for the short hiatus.  I got thwarted by the great firewall for a time and haven't been able to get on this site, much less post.  China always keeps you on your toes.

Now, for the long awaited photos and stories from my National Day trip to Xi'an.

I went with three friends for the week we get off, you already heard about the god forsaken train ride, but the actual time there was great.  No lesson planning, no screaming 9 year olds (don't get me wrong, I love them, but, you know...)...  We still had to wake up bright and early but it was to see cool things, and we were all in the same place which is one of the more obnoxious parts of Shenzhen (it takes me 45 min to 1.5 hour to get to my friends).

I'm having trouble getting the photos to stay in the right order and I don't want to push my luck too far, so I present in no particular order documentation of the trip:

Xi'an noodles.  A single wide 3.8m long noodle with dipping soup.
Possibly the most difficult thing to eat with chopsticks so far.

Big Goose Pagoda and practicing Asian photo poses

The terra-cotta warriors of Qin in their massive airplane hanger type museum

Thomas and me in front of the Drum Tower.
We look pretty good considering this is right after the first train leg

Possibly the highlight of the trip for me, possibly because I sorely miss biking.
Biking on the city wall, 13km long encircling the inner city.

A display of terra-cotta figurines in the various hats of the era, of which there are many.

"The most beautiful beauty"
(description by our hired driver/guide)

Well, there you go. As far as description goes, it was very, very crowded.  We had to continuously change our plans to accommodate how very crowded it was, but we still managed to see a lot of things, most of which I had missed on my first trip.  Xi'an was the capital of China for like 2,000 years, so there is a lot of old things buried around that you can go see.  Also, a lot of museums with old pottery.  So much pottery.  We feasted on delicious things, like fancy dumplings, that long noodle I showed you, and various Muslim BBQ from the popular Muslim Quarter.  And we found bumper cars, which are the most terrifying thing in China because there are no regulations and they go super fast.

Good trip, good friends, good vacation.  Yay.

And I'll leave you with this gem:

 

The highlight of the train ride, and I mean only highlight of the train ride, was the guy coming through selling shamwows with a megaphone.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, a kind of Chinese Thanksgiving. In that families get together, eat lots and lots of food, and celebrate.  Yesterday I made pans and pans of dumplings with my adopted family, photos below.  It was much fun, a fellow foreign teacher came as well, and general merriment was had pinacled by the consumtion of said dumplings, with sauces, a fruit called "dragon eyes", and of course beer.
Today, the tradition to to eat a lot (naturally), and gather in parks to share moon cakes and gaze at the moon.  There's a legend behind this, but you may do better to google it than hear my rendition because my understanding comes completely from hearing it in Chinese and then trying to decipher.
I will add that Saturday was Teacher's Day, a splendid holiday in which students and the school bestows flowers, food, and small gifts upon the teachers.  So all in all, lovely weekend for me.  This combined with the successful-ish completion of my first week as a teacher at this school, good company, and fun with friends has officially made this a "love China" weekend.  (For those of you new to my China blogging, I have found that my opinion of living in China is distinctly broken down into a love/hate relationship, and last time I lived here the amount of each was just about equal.  I like to classify on the blogs so everyone can have an idea of what emotional life is like here haha)
So happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone, I miss you all and must reiterate, you would not believe my life.