Saturday, October 11, 2014

September 24, 2014


Mid week reflections

It is 1:15 on September 24, 2014 in Changchun, Jilin province, China.  After rains overnight that left big puddles on the track around our sport field, the sky is clear and blue and the sun is warm.  There have been so many sunny days in Changchun both this fall and last.  The temperature is about 20 degrees.

The sun is rising later these days, of course, so I did not get up until after 5 am. As I was leaving the building at 5:30 for a short run on the track, our friends and mentors Carol and Roy Kirby were returning from their morning exercise.  They both start by walking briskly around the 330 m track. Carol then continues to walk or jog while Roy goes through a Tai Chi routine he has done for decades.  Oh, they are both over 75 and that was the start of their day that includes at least four hours of teaching each to classes of nearly 100 students.


She looks like this
They were not alone on the track. I joined about twenty Chinese people who were walking or jogging both forwards and backwards. Another woman gracefully does Tai Chi every morning, followed by more exercises with a sword.  (In fact there us a group of about 20 women who do this every morning in a square at the Jida campus down the road from 6 – 7 am.  At 7 they put the swords into velvet bags, hoist them over their shoulders, then head out to babysit their grandchildren, or drink coffee, or play tennis or dance in the park or buy food or cook or ???   I would love to find out more.)


Then back for breakfast with David who had also risen a bit late for him at 6:00.  Oatmeal with bananas, toast and marmalade, coffee.  As usual I headed up the hill to teach first. Today I wore a black skirt, the red Olympics t-shirt from 2008 and a black cardigan jacket.

Great classes.  I have the privilege of working with the freshman students who have stronger English skills and started the program at level two (whatever that means.)  As all you teachers know, there is nothing like routines to help both students and teacher and we are starting to get some good ones in place.  Of course it is National Holiday week starting on Saturday and almost all the students are going home. After the holidays we are together for three more weeks, then an exam and then everyone gets a new teacher, level, book and classroom.  Like so many other things pedagogical here, it doesn’t make too much sense to a foreign teacher, but one can find good parts to any process.

So the morning for both David and me consists of two different classes for the same course.  His students have a big mid term exam on Friday, so today was the second o f two review classes. He has been fortunate enough to be assigned (for the second year) a superb TA, Sophia.  Today she delivered the review class, given in English on Monday, in Chinese to ensure that students really understood everything. She is an extremely capable young woman with exceptional English, cross- cultural and organizational skills.

David usually waits for me outside my teaching building, perched in his characteristic posture on the side of the porch. Today he wore his China red shirt with a very attractive red and black tie. What a handsome fellow. We walked hand in hand down the hill for lunch. The students think we are either funny or cute … the old foreigners holding hands outside.

Yogurt and fruit for r lunch, then David went back up the hill for another 90-minute class then an office hour. Wednesday is his very busy teaching day.

I watched him go, then spent more time watching three little families playing on the sport field (now dry.) Three toddlers, three grandmothers and one mother.  The children here are so, so adorable!  The little ones often stare at us because we look so different and are encouraged by their parents to say,”Hi,” or “Bye, bye.”  I just want to hug the little ones who remind me so much of sweet Nikka. The children want to be hugged about as much as Nykka does when she is playing outside– why stop when there are puddles to explore, stairs to climb and balls to throw?

So now I will either have a nap, or walk to the grocery store for some yogurt, or go downstairs to the coffee shop and do some marking.  Nap is winning.  Thanks for reading.

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