More of our our apartment

The bedroom contains two wardrobes, two bedside tables, a big desk and chair (Lizzie's) and a huge bed. It's bigger than the footprint of the tent that we took on our camping trip to Cape Breton so long ago with Jay and Pam.  The mattresses her are very hard, but we are used to it.
Dining room table, small and efficient.

David the cook in our well appointed kitchen. Like the whole apartment it is quite spacious, yet can be cleaned top to bottom in an hour. We have to clean often because of the ever present dust.  This will get a lot worse in the winter when the air quality deteriorates due to coal heating, Ugh. More on that another time.





A previous tenant added these lovely wall decorations. There is one on the apartment door that says, "Utopia." Well, it's pretty nice.

The view from our living room and bedroom windows.  I love the angles and colours. That's our alley below. The sign reads "Unforgettable Hotel" Given that the usual length of stay at the hotel is reputed to be three hours, it has quite likely been unforgettable for a fair number of students over the years.

(Try to find  "Unforgettable Hotel Changchun" on YouTube)

The blue tarp was put up (noisily) at 4:30  am every day until last week. It sheltered the soymilk and youtiao makers and eaters. While that breakfast stand is not longer there, the dumpling lady who works in front of the internet cafe to the left of the hotel is still in action rolling and frying dumplings from 5 am. They are so good!

In between is a small supermarket with a big outdoor display of fruit for sale, It's open from very early until after 10 pm. We wandered back from dinner around 9:30 last night and were able to pick up this morning's fruit before going inside.

Looking for Narnia?

People in our neighbourhood: the corn roasters

 This man has been located on the street behind our residence (from now on called our alley) since we arrived in mid August.  He is at work every day from around 7 am to 9 pm. There are people everywhere here with piles of corn spread on the sidewalk. One or two are busy husking corn and there are always people buying bags of this wonderful food. Most of the vendors have small charcoal braziers. Roasted corn on a stick is a popular street food and it is very common to see shoppers and walkers munching away as they walk.  Corn cobs in plastic bags litter the street, but never for long.  By sunrise each day the sweeper teams with brooms made of twigs have cleared away the mess.

The picture shows have a specialized roaster with slots for individual cobs of corn. It can also be used for sweet potatoes; the child in the stroller was sucking on what looked like an orange popsicle but was actually one of these sweet potato treats.

Infants, toddlers and children of pre school age are often with their grandparents, toddling around our sports field, being carried or pushed in strollers. They are always greeted with the smiles and joy that are shown in the picture.  Slightly older children are often encouraged to wave at the foreigners and say "Hello." (Even they giggle at our attempts to say "Nihao.")

Coming soon .... a report of our trip this afternoon to the Changchun World Sculpture Park. We went with our young colleague Erik and his parents, both teachers at a school in southern China. It is one of the most amazing parks and art galleries I have ever seen.  It was a glorious fall day,  like almost every day in September here. From the park I could see hills outside the city.  Until we post our photos of the day, this website will give you a taste http://travel.cnn.com/shanghai/life/coolest-sculpture-park-youve-never-heard-921969

China Adventure: Mrs. Elton back in action!

Tuesday September 24

Hello. It’s been a while. As the teachers among you know, the routine of preparation, teaching, marking. feedback and anxiety can quickly fill almost all available time. That said, there is not a lot of anxiety.

My two classes of EFL are great. With twelve days down we have routines and a more comfortable working environment for most.  As always, and perhaps even more so, the students’ levels vary greatly.  However, they work very well together to ensure that everyone is successful.  As a western teacher my initial (internal) reaction when someone whispers the answer to another student is,  “Oh, is your name Joe? I though not.” That is so wrong here.

Angus (!)  and Alex

The students see such action as coaching and teaching – and it is. Our challenge is to incorporate that into the “gradual transfer of responsibility” that is learning.

 

One of the experienced teachers gave a very good workshop on teaching pronunciation. This an area in which I have received nor formal training.  It is fascinating to reflect on how we speak English. Our EFL staff includes teachers from Canada, USA, Spain, the Philippines and Albania and each has a different perspective on pronunciation. I was able to immediately incorporate some of his ideas in class and my lessons now have more call and response, and direct instruction on this topic.

The students write every day, and many seem to enjoy it.  They take another course on listening and speaking using a very lively, well-organized and fast paced text/audio. The teachers in that course are all doing a greet job of engaging the students so their speaking skills are quickly improving.

It is mid-term week already!  The poor kids have English midterms on Thursday and Friday evening. Next week is a week of the National Holiday and many hoped to leave early to get home. However, university policy is that nobody leaves early so every student is doing an exam on Friday evening.  (At the higher levels, some may be able to convince a friend to write it for them … depends on how well the proctors are checking ID.  

The teachers are a very collegial and professional lot.  Our EFL level one group meets together to plan and design tests.  We also always chat in the halls between classes … one of the young teachers said it looked like we were doing a huddle and cheer before re-entering the classrooms.

As usual, I have started to obsess about the teaching, creating new worksheets and activities for every lesson and carrying stacks of paper between room 314 and home.  Balance is needed … and will be achieved. I can hear some of you saying,  “Come on Lizzie, keep it simple. ” I’ll let you know how that goes!

Off to the EFL office for some office hours.  I wonder if the students think this is an assigned class. Could be crowded. Hmmm …

Take care,   Liz

China Adventure- September 12, 2013- Liz back in class

September 12, 2013

Three days of teaching and, as usual, it feels as if we have been doing this for weeks. In a good way.

The teaching structure here is  complicated and some of the decisions made are a bit bizarre. But we are learning to accept things and work within the constraints.  All first year students are in the Enlgish as a Foreign Language (or EFL) program. They were tested prior to entry. Those who not pass the test were supposed to attend another program at a college in the city of Qingdao on the coast further south. The week before school started this program was cancelled, the students transferred here and the two teachers who had been hired to teach there were given the option of going home or staving at JULC.  (They stayed.)

So there are two groups of pre-level one students, doing the level one book along with six “real” level one. There are also two groups of level two.  These levels do not correspond to the leveled designations used in Ottawa elementary schools but are based on a text and an exit test.  Each group takes 90 minutes of “Reading and Writing” with one teacher, 90 minutes of “Speaking and Listening” with another and 90m minutes of grammar with a third Chinese teacher.  Their only goal this year is to pass an exit test that will allow them to take Academic English and college courses in English.

The exit test was changed last year three week before it was due to be given which presented challenges for students and teachers alike.  This year the pass rate must be higher.  So we have the pleasure of very small groups (in my case 14 and 10) and planned curriculum common tests and rubrics.  There are lots of EFL teachers. Including five very bright young people, graduates of a college in southern California.  They are energetic, polite and resourceful. They are also all musicians. One man was a vocal music major and starts his classes each day with exciting vocal warm ups. 

My students are wonderful. Most are away from home for the first time, some a very long way away.  Although they are 18-20 year old, they present in class more like very polite grade 11’s.  We teach for 45 minutes, then a ten-minute break then another 45 minute to each group. I chose to do reading for the first period then writing.  All those workshops and years of teaching reading and writing strategies are really coming in handy.  This week they have been working on using jot notes for pre-writing, chronological paragraphs, prior knowledge, scanning and text to self connections.  (OK that part was for my OCDSB buddies J)

I’ll write about their dorm life another time, but suffice it to say that the electricity in the residences is tuned off at 10:30, the communal showers are 300 meters across a sport field and they have to wash their own clothes by hand and hang them on rails in the halls.

I was nervous, having been out of the classroom for two years. But, it came back.  There are times when 14 faces are looking at me as if I am speaking in Martian, and then it is time for plan B or C or D.  But that’s part of the game and I love it. 

Tomorrow’s classes were cancelled this morning. The freshmen are going to a big ceremony at the main Jilin University campus about one km away.  I asked permission to go but was told that foreign teachers are not permitted to attend by either our college or the university. That’s just how it is here.

The students in my classes, those who were in classes I observed since arriving and those in David's classes are very friendly, saying hello on campus, it the dining hall, on the street or in the gym.

Yesterday I had lunch with David then went to the local gym for a weight workout. After returning took a cup of coffee and sat by the sport field watching the soccer team practicing and many individuals and families from the community out walking around the track. Two of my students, Angus (!!) and Alex came over to chat. The combination of the sport induced endorphins, the coffee, the warm evening, the music playing on speakers over the field (there I some kind of student radio station here) and the friendliness made me very happy. At home perhaps.  That was enhanced by an amazing dinner of fresh shrimp prepared by David in our small but more than adequate kitchen.

Wise teachers here say that our emotions will be like a sine curve. At the moment I am feeling definitely near the top of the curve (near pi/2.) When things get bad, it will be possible to remember the feeling and know that, like the graph, we will get back there eventually.

China Adventure: September 7, 2013- Liz's Observations

September 7, 2013

When my dad taught in China 19 years ago, he phoned home once a week and recorded his diary on cassette tapes which he sent home.  This morning we talked with my aunt Claire in Michigan … big hello to Claire and Jim and all my relatives in the extended Weimer clan. It is good to know that you are close by via computer. Through the free magic of  Skype we have kept up to date with Nykka’s adventures and watched her start to walk. We have chatted with Lucy and Bobby and clan, shared the excitement of the CKC national paddling championships with Ian and Angus.

I miss them all, but the world is smaller than it used to be.

Adventures in China: September 5, 2013- Some random thoughts from Elizabeth

September 5, 2013

Some random thoughts from Elizabeth

The air in Changchun is clean. It is about 10:30 am, there are fluffy clouds in a blue sky with a gentle breeze and 21 degrees.  After class this morning I bought milky coffee and a piece of fried dough I the dining hall and sat in the gazebo in front of our residence. At this time of day there is not much traffic noise. The main sound is that of the first years marching on the field.  Hmmm … could this be a Tim Horton’s substitute?

This morning we saw a bird in the trees outside our window. It looked like a grey jay (I am away from Wi-Fi so cannot look it up.)  That’s the first bird that I have actively noticed in China. Time to stop looking down, and look at the birds.

Yesterday’s trip to the hospital so vividly captured by David was one of our first chances to get into the rest of the city.  No idea where we were … but there was a zoo, and malls, and a block of old storefront type stalls all selling building materials, and wide boulevards.  The medical procedures were indeed efficient.  (Explicit material ahead … do not read if you are bothered by bathroom descriptions)  After blood was taken we were given a cotton swab (which had been used to apply iodine)  to stop the blood flow and handed a small cup for a urine sample.  Imagine holding, with a drippy arm, important forms and a purse and then having to pee into a small cup over a Chinese style toilet. All cool until I tripped over the step coming out of the cubicle and nearly lost it all. But no problem, the attendant cleaned the floor, said that there was enough. The washroom, like the rest of the building, was spotlessly clean.

Our residence is also spotlessly clean with shiny marble floors.

I am sitting in the little lobby at the top of the stairs on the fifth floor. The apartments all look over the street and the other side is essentially all windows, currently open, that face the college gardens and field. Colleague John came out to chat and brought me some slices of raisin cake made freshly this morning.

Ruthie’s class this morning was doing some work based on a chapter from "Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff", by Carlson. I was prepared to silently think negative thoughts about the book. But it makes sense in a very accessible and easy to read way. Especially right now with so many new things and so much we can’t control.  So, this is calm, mellow, well fed Lizzie signing off for now.

Adventures in China: Little David Visits the Hospital- September 4

Little David Visits the Hospital

I can sometimes be uncomfortable in medical situations.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to state that there are aspects of certain biomedical procedures which may prompt misgivings in my otherwise calm and measured emotional landscape.

No, that is perhaps not quite right either.  Let me try again.  Ready?  Here goes:

Going to a doctor gives me the willies.  Big time.  Really.  It’s scary and creepy, and I know it will all end up in tears, so let’s just drop the whole thing and do something else, okay?  Got it?  Good.  Don’t mention it. Ever. That’s fine, I know you just let it slip out; no hard feelings, you had no way of knowing.  Let’s just forget you brought it up.

Oh? That was me?  Really?  How embarrassing.

Those who share my secret, well concealed, minor sentiment are well aware that it can have an occasional negative impact on one’s quality of life.  Like the time I hobbled around York University during my frosh week because it seemed less painful than tending to my broken foot.  Or the blood poisoning episode.  And there was an incident when I fell off the baulk and landed on a sharpened trowel. It was a 4.5 Marshalltown if you must know.

I’m not stupid.  When I weighed the pros and cons of these situations it became clear that the attention of a medical professional was, overall, more desirable than the alternatives.  It just took me a bit of time to ensure I’d thought things through.  Got it?

But today I didn’t get a lot of time to think.  Today was different.

It all started quite tamely.  We were told we had to go to the local hospital to get chest x-rays because the medical reports which had accompanied our visa applications were summaries and did not include the images themselves.  Meet the driver at 9:30 am and off we would go.  All quite simple really.

I started to get an inkling that things were not precisely as hoped when we seemed to be driving away from the local hospital and towards downtown Changchun. But Elizabeth was with me, which always makes me feel safe.  Besides, there is just so much to see when you are being ferried through a Chinese city for the first time. Tramways. Huge shopping malls.  Giant cinemas. Beautiful exotic topiaries.  The Zoo.  An amusement park. Weird and wonderful vehicles on the road, sometimes coming towards us.  In our lane!

That was close. Lucky somebody honked.

The Changchun Travel Medicine Agency is a beautiful modern hi-tech facility with a multi-station reception centre.  The efficient friendly women who filled out our forms on line also took our pictures, got our signatures, and managed to provide us with a full set of documents in minutes.  So clean! So neat! So convenient!  Forward to radiology!

And that was good too.  Very quick, very clean. Painless.  Alright, I thought, we’re out of here. Huzzah!

Then we were directed upstairs.  Another bright clean corridor with neat efficient and capable staff. And that was the corridor where I nearly became completely unhinged.  

That was where I finally got around to reading the forms which had been thoughtfully provided in English as well as Chinese.

Blood samples!  Urine samples! Blood pressure test! Colour blindness test! Height and weight! Abdominal ultrasound! ECG! Who did they think I am, Henrietta Lacks? 

No, I told our minder, there must be some mistake – we went through all of that stuff over a period of about a week (including trips to several locations around Ottawa) when we applied for the visas!  And at considerable expense too.

No, I was told.  Those were to get into China.  

These tests are required by the local health authority if we are to live and work here.  They were sympathetic, kind even.  But I was there, and the testers were waiting . . .

Twenty minutes later it was all done. In that short intense and painless interval the efficient and gentle people at the clinic managed to gather a lot of information I had until now assiduously avoided.  Blood and urine both wet; no surprises there.  Blood pressure: yup. Colour blind? nope.  Height and weight present and accounted for.  Lungs check; ditto for the heart. Not pregnant either, but possibly cultivating a small gallstone.

 

Then back to the campus for an early lunch.  All is well, and with luck I am done for another year.

Lessons learned: a Chinese physical is faster, more convenient and less expensive than back home.  That was a pleasant surprise.  Second, Changchun’s medical facilities are top-notch and impeccably maintained. That’s good news for everyone here, not just the Chinese. 

And finally, the experience was not a bad one. I don’t have to wait for blood poisoning – or fall into a pit – before I face a medical practitioner.  As I age, so must I take better care of myself; and I don’t have to do it all alone.

That may be the most valuable lesson the Chinese have taught me today.

Poster from Jilin University