Picture time

I visit McDonald's often...(very close to our school)

Zoom out a little

Now look to the left...(McDs is to the right)

The long name (RenDaFuZhong is the short name)

Characters for Ren Da Fu Zhong

entrance (basketball courts on the right and coming up on the left...PO on the left)

At the T from prev. pic, garden area to the right with bball courts on the left and PO far away on the left

Around the corner to the right, garden area on the right, classrooms on left and front (SR--where I teach)

I teach on the 3rd floor

I live on the 8th floor. Just a few quick pictures around school...we had snow but only for a few days but I got pictures of it! Some pictures from Africa are posted below (hopefully the links work)

Click to see African Safari

Click to see New Year Holiday 09

Responsibility of teaching

A Harvard economics professor answers a question by a high school teacher.

Here is the post.

I ate a student!

I have had a lot of chances to do things with my students lately and thought I would share some of these adventures.

10 MAR

I had some more Chinese lessons from some of my students in the office. Relationships continue to build and am having more contact with them which is encouraging. Chinese is coming (kinda) but slow. I’m working on it.

11 MAR

Another one of my students has started teaching another teacher and myself Chinese history. She said she was bored and wanted to help people and asked how our Chinese was coming. It didn’t take long for her to figure out she could help us a lot and she decided to try her hand at teaching us some history. We went through the last 150 years and we will see how it goes.

12 MAR

I asked some of my students from last term if they would be interested in going out to eat sometime. They showed interested and I asked them lets pretend we set up a time such as Thursday night and we meet and go eat together. Fair enough, I thought it was straightforward. This happened on Monday, fast forward to Thursday. Some students came to me at lunch and asked if we were still eating together and where should they meet me. I chuckled a bit but agreed. I was hoping to eat with them but didn’t think that we had already set up a time but I am in China and things are always exciting and normally funny. We said to meet in the office after class. 12 students piled in, I did not have a clue how many to expect. By the time we were offcampus we had picked up another 5 to make a grand total of 18. I took them to a place the teachers normally visit once a month and when we rounded the corner I could see a server was standing on the second floor and saw me come around the corner…but this time with 17 students following me. Needless to say, her eyes became rather large and ran away to try and get some help. We had a great time and I am planning other meals with my other students. I have roughly 200 students this semester so I don’t think I will have a problem with keeping myself busy.

13 MAR

I got to play some ping pong after lunch downstairs in the basement/workout room. It is a funny place but there have to be about 30 ping pong tables. It is a funny sight. One of my students said they had a very difficult time finding tables in the US and wanted to know why I wasn’t terrible.

After business elective I got to eat with 3 of my old Olympic students. We went to a mall close by and got some noodles for dinner.

14 MAR

Had some fun relaxing with some basketball. I beat 4 of my guys in one on one. They are surprised that I can hang with them…I am pretty sure they think I am old and cant play anymore…which makes me wonder…anyways, I can hang with them and I am not old. That is the important part.

15 MAR

Meetings with my server friend continued. He picked a name this week: Willard. He chose it and liked it so I said its your name and you need to like it. Some of my students have great names so let me know if you ever want to know some funny names they choose for themselves.

16 MAR

I was able to work with a student clearing up some questions about business. We had a good time and were working on a paper and trying to explain equity some more. I also said something funny in class. “I ate a student on Thursday.” I didn’t mean to say I ate a student, I meant to say I ate with students. My English is rapidly declining and I don’t know why. I have found that the longer I am in China the worse it gets. I am working on Chinese but it is slow progress, but I knew it would be difficult. My students are very helpful and encouraging and compliment way too much because I know my Chinese is terrible. They tell me its good…but sometimes they slip and laugh a bit and smile really big when I say something. They are very willing to help and really respect any effort made to try to learn their language. We are trying. My advice is start a long time ago.

*no students were eaten…just so we are clear about that :)

I am doing very well and have truly been encouraged by opportunities to do things with students and am asking for more.

Caleb

I saw a lambo today

It was awesome, and looks much better in person.

1 trillion is a lot...

A friend sent me a link to a website showing how much 1 trillion actually looks like. It is probably more than you would expect.

Start with $100...

Then $10,000...

...a packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2'' think

Then $1 million...

...100 packets of $10,000

Then $100 million...

Then 1 billion...

Then 1 trillion...or a million million, a thousand billion, or one followed by 12 zeros...

and ps...the pallets are double stacked...

http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

A Violinist in the Metro

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. 

Three minutes went by and a middle-aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule. 

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk. 

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. 

The one who paid the most attention was a 3-year-old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on. 

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. 

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars. 

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100. 

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context? 

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: 

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing? 


Try not to miss the beauty of life coming your way.

An update on the last two months...

Things have been exceptionally well and I will give you a quick taste of the last two months. I realize it has been some time since you last heard from me.

Just finished my second week of teaching and I am enjoying my classes. I am only teaching Olympics and my business elective this term. Last semester I had 8 sections of Oral English (once/week), 3 Olympics (twice/week), and my business elective (once/week). This semester I have 6 sections of Olympics and business.

I had close to 6 weeks off for Chinese New Year and I went to Cape Town, South Africa for 3.5 of those. I went with a friend who teaches at the university and we met up with his parents. We stayed and helped at a small college and gave the campus some greatly needed TLC. We painted some offices, some trim/fascia, the roof and did a lot of random here and there fix-it things. It was very nice to be out of the classroom for a while and use my hands more because I haven’t had that opportunity in some time but I missed China and it reconfirmed that this is where I am to be.

Although we spent a lot of time working, we did have some time for pleasure. We went on a safari, which was amazing. Words, pictures, and video cannot capture what it was like. I was so taken back and in awe of everything. I got to see a 2.5-ton rhino about 5 feet away from our truck, lions, cheetah, elephants, water buffalo/ox, and crocodile. I have tried to post video and pictures but for whatever reason it will not load. I have tried 5 times and am determined but rather frustrated. I think facebook and youtube hate me.

I will walk you through the first two weeks back.

18 FEB—Opportunity because of snow

We had some snow in Beijing, which doesn't happen often. It is cold but doesn't snow. There were some articles saying 'they' were making it snow like like they made it rain for the Olympics. Beijing really struggles with pollution but the day after it rains is normally significantly clearer and therefore prettier. We are also experiencing a moderate to significant drought and normally don't get much rain anyways but it hasn't rained in some time. That is why 'they' made it snow. The point of the story is that students have daily exercises between second and third period. They did not have exercises because of the snow and exercise time became free time. Three of my students stayed after class and spent their free time talking and hanging out with me. I have office hours every Wednesday where students can come and practice English and they all came and talked and set up a weekly time when they would come in. They are helping me with Chinese and I am helping them with English and telling them more about American culture and schooling.

20 FEB—Office sharing pictures

On Friday I was able to meet with one of my students and go over some pictures from holiday and catch up.

22 FEB—Server weekly meeting

Many of our team go to the 'The Noodle Restaurant.' We don't know its' actual name and it was dubbed the noodle restaurant and stuck ever since. It is quite close, small, cheap, quick, and the food is good so as you can probably imagine, all being fresh out of college we visit often...and by often, I mean often. (like multiple times a week; a mean averages 10-12 quai which is about $1.50-1.80) One of the servers has pretty good English and we were able to start talking with him more and some of us got his number. I started texting him and another teacher and I tried to help him pick an English name before the New Year holiday but he didn't like any of our suggestions. After break I wrote him we met for lunch last Sunday and he came over to my apartment after we ate and talked for about three hours. We set up Sundays as a time together and am just building relationship with him and working Chinese/English for each other and I am going through what I taught in Olympics that week. He is 21 and out on his own, trying to support himself on USD60/month working part-time and going to school. I am not exactly sure how that works but he is teaching himself English and was very glad and accepting when I offered to trade English and Olympics for Chinese.

25 FEB—Office opportunities continue with dinner and study plans

My Wednesday office hour students came back and we worked on Chinese for an hour, talked and went through my pictures from break. They gave me hw (study Chinese for next week…but I thought teachers didn’t do hw…wasn’t that one of the perks for teaching…?) and we set up dinner plans after office hours this Wed. with myself and another foreign teacher.

26 FEB—Tutor Ph.D

Something exciting got going this week, I started tutoring Ph.Ds an hour a week (English obviously). I had a great time, we connected well and were relaxed with each other. They are studying economics and work on English an hour everyday but I am the only business major of the five of us who tutor them so I was able to talk with another set of vocabulary and subjects that others cannot. I believe they enjoyed talking about something they obviously care about and it gives them an opportunity to work on their English within their discipline. Part of the reason for the English tutoring everyday is they are tentatively scheduled to visit/work/study to the US.

27 FEB—Basketball with my guys

I played basketball with my guys at lunch for 30 minutes (I don’t have class until elective starts which is this Friday and electives are after school from 4.15-5.45) and I got to play ball with them after school yesterday until about 6.30 then everyone had to go home.

I am still trying to post pictures. I made a youtube account and have tried to post video, all unsuccessful but I have not given up.

South Africa until 12 Feb

that is right--Cape Town, South Africa.  Micah and I leave tomorrow night and are excited.  We finished up the semester about two weeks ago and have been hanging out but things has been less exciting since almost everyone is out traveling.  Things are slightly different here and we have a shorter summer break but more time off for spring festival (early Jan-mid Feb).  People's plans range from going back to the US, staying here in Beijing, the Philippines, and the most popular being SouthEast Asia (including Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand), but the best choice is obviously South Africa...I think it is going to be sweet.  

Mimi's birthday!

Today is my little sisters birthday, Happy Birthday Mimi!  I hope you have a wonderful day.  I miss you but look forward to seeing you.