Number of foreigners I have seen in Qingpu to date: 2
I will no longer have a squatter count because I caved early last week. My aunt Joan talked some sense into me and sometimes when ya gotta go, ya gotta go.
I know that the Americans have many stereotypes about Canada but this has to be my favourite. With the help of his friends, one of my students asked me if I have ever killed a seal and skinned it, killed a duck and put it inside the seal skin, cooked it like that then buried it in the snow for 2-3 months then ate it. I almost let him believe I had. Almost. The funny thing it, it didn’t sound much different than haggis!
This week, I was asked to sit in on a teacher’s class. This is the second time I have seen her teach the exact same material but she made some changes. Afterwards, all of the English teachers met and for 2 hours, picked apart her lesson and lesson plan. They latterly went word for word through the plan and made her change almost every third word. It was painful for me (the meeting was in Chinese) but I can only image what it felt like for her! Teachers in China have a much lighter course load than teachers in Canada (sometimes they teach seven classes a WEEK!) so they take great care in planning each lesson. When they have an “open class”, like the two I saw, they take up to a month to prepare! Crazy! They can’t believe that in Canada we teach up to 8 classes a day, depending on the school, and that we could have as few as two preps a week.
I’ve been in China for 3 weeks (wow!) and I still can’t figure out crosswalks for the life of me. During rush hour, police do help with the crossing by directing traffic (in some places) but in others, the crosswalks are useless. You have to just walk when you can. More often than not, this means running frantically to the yellow line and standing on it for a while waiting for the traffic in the other direction to cease slightly. Another mad dash ensues. Often we make our decisions about restaurants and stores based on what road we have to cross haha
I have been asked today several times about my son. Apparently I should have one by now. Daughters are not required. Strangely, this is not reflected in my student population. Maybe this is because so many of my students came from rural communities where more than one child is allowed. I am only speculating, however.
The weather has taken as dramatic a turn as I have ever seen! It has been 25 degrees for the past 3 days. At this rate, come June, I am going to melt!! I think that my upcoming shopping trip (see next post) is going to be important so I can switch up my wardrobe!
One final note I have to mention is about shopping for food. EVERYTHING is expired. We can’t figure it out for the life of us. Yogurt, cookies, crackers, peanut butter….all of them are past their expiration date. We’ve gotten into the habit of looking for things that expired in January or February (super rare). With so many people, you’d think there would be a high turnover of food but I guess not!!
I will no longer have a squatter count because I caved early last week. My aunt Joan talked some sense into me and sometimes when ya gotta go, ya gotta go.
I know that the Americans have many stereotypes about Canada but this has to be my favourite. With the help of his friends, one of my students asked me if I have ever killed a seal and skinned it, killed a duck and put it inside the seal skin, cooked it like that then buried it in the snow for 2-3 months then ate it. I almost let him believe I had. Almost. The funny thing it, it didn’t sound much different than haggis!
This week, I was asked to sit in on a teacher’s class. This is the second time I have seen her teach the exact same material but she made some changes. Afterwards, all of the English teachers met and for 2 hours, picked apart her lesson and lesson plan. They latterly went word for word through the plan and made her change almost every third word. It was painful for me (the meeting was in Chinese) but I can only image what it felt like for her! Teachers in China have a much lighter course load than teachers in Canada (sometimes they teach seven classes a WEEK!) so they take great care in planning each lesson. When they have an “open class”, like the two I saw, they take up to a month to prepare! Crazy! They can’t believe that in Canada we teach up to 8 classes a day, depending on the school, and that we could have as few as two preps a week.
I’ve been in China for 3 weeks (wow!) and I still can’t figure out crosswalks for the life of me. During rush hour, police do help with the crossing by directing traffic (in some places) but in others, the crosswalks are useless. You have to just walk when you can. More often than not, this means running frantically to the yellow line and standing on it for a while waiting for the traffic in the other direction to cease slightly. Another mad dash ensues. Often we make our decisions about restaurants and stores based on what road we have to cross haha
I have been asked today several times about my son. Apparently I should have one by now. Daughters are not required. Strangely, this is not reflected in my student population. Maybe this is because so many of my students came from rural communities where more than one child is allowed. I am only speculating, however.
The weather has taken as dramatic a turn as I have ever seen! It has been 25 degrees for the past 3 days. At this rate, come June, I am going to melt!! I think that my upcoming shopping trip (see next post) is going to be important so I can switch up my wardrobe!
One final note I have to mention is about shopping for food. EVERYTHING is expired. We can’t figure it out for the life of us. Yogurt, cookies, crackers, peanut butter….all of them are past their expiration date. We’ve gotten into the habit of looking for things that expired in January or February (super rare). With so many people, you’d think there would be a high turnover of food but I guess not!!