Shell in China

This week has been full of random events and information, so this post is going to be a series of update blurbs and a few pictures to go along with them.

Wedding

Last Wednesday we attended our first Chinese wedding. (Why it has taken so long I have no idea. There was a wedding soon after we came to Chengxian, but it was on a holiday week and we were out of town, but otherwise, no other weddings.) The wedding was much more fun than the baby luncheon we attended the week before. At the wedding, the bride wore a traditional Western white wedding dress to greet the guests outside the restaurant and then there was a very short ceremony that involved three kowtows and a few words and then they were hitched! The bride then skittered off to change into a red dress for the rest of the reception. The wedding was mainly a giant meal. Thad was in heaven with plate after plate of fish, mutton, ribs, etc. coming out of the backroom. He definitely ate his fill that day!

We took money as a gift, which is what my students told me would be expected. There was a man sitting at the door and he would write down your name and how much you gave. It seems awkward by our American sensibilities in which money isn’t openly discussed, so we felt strange going about it that way, but it is the standard here and along with it we went.

Last Wednesday was beautiful and sunny outside- the perfect day for wedding. The bride was radiant and as happy as I have ever seen her. Best wishes to the new couple! (Now the expectation will be for her to be pregnant by their first anniversary. I guess Thad and I failed miserably in that regard!)

Student Numbers

This is just a short note, but one that I learned today and thought was interesting. My students all have student numbers. I realized that there was significance to them in that by looking at it I could tell you which year and of which class they were a member. What I learned today was that the last two numbers tell me their class ranking on the gaokao (Chinese SAT.) If a class has the final numbers of 42-88, the student with the 42 had the best score while the 88 had the lowest. Wow! So they all know just where they fall. Interesting…

Inspection Week

This week is a mini-inspection, which leads up to the big school inspection in May. To prepare, the school has done a lot of grounds work, including planting flowers and trees and campus now looks great! The students have been given various regulations to follow this week including wearing their school pins (Thad and I now also have these and are wearing them), their dorms have to be spotless in case of inspection, if an adult enters their classroom they have to stand and clap, they have longer morning exercises, etc. Everything is a bit tense around here. I was in the office today on the break and the inspector-dudes (official title!) were in there going over paperwork. The teachers all sat at the table and didn’t say a word. It was strange. Usually they are all running around laughing and joking, but today it was so solemn. I felt odd just sitting there like a mouse! Also, the students told me they had to be prepared to answer questions about our school if the inspectors asked them. Naturally, I wanted to know what kind of questions and they said things like how many students go to school here. Again, I couldn’t help but ask the answer to that one and in unison I received this reply, “3903!! When I was done laughing I told them that was a very exact number and that in America we would probably just say “About 4000.”

I can’t imagine what it is going to be like when the big-wigs come next month!!!

Book Nook

The Book Nook is going strong. Rachel and I (ie: The Book Nook) sponsored an essay contest which just ended yesterday. We will read the papers today and choose winners and we are hoping to have a small ceremony for the participants and teachers next week. Also, Rachel received eleven new books in the mail today from a young woman in her hometown. Rachel has never met the woman, but there was an article published in the local paper and this lady decided to send some books our way! Thank you!! We are at 715 books in the library right now, but I am keeping the hope of 1000 alive! Melissa and her team of teachers/students at Caldwell’s Syringa Middle School have purchased 88 more (yeah! and thank you!) that will hopefully be in the mail in the next few weeks. That will put our total at about 800.

(Warning: Here comes the plea!) So, if you have any young adult books sitting around your house that you no longer want, please throw them in a padded envelope and ship them my way! I have less than 100 days left in China (I haven’t done the math, but a fellow PCV said that April 1 was the start of the 100 countdown) and really want to hit the goal of 1000. But, shipping takes several weeks, so really I am down to less than that. Check your shelves for me and skip on down to your local post office! (When you go to drop off those taxes, throw a couple of books in the mail. It will make you feel good after giving away your hard-earned cash!)

(And of course, a big thank you to Uncle Owen and family, student-Brian and family, Melissa and team, author Jenine, and everyone else who has shipped a few this way already!)

Broken Nose?

This morning, I could hear the students still out at morning exercises when I got up. It seemed late for that, so I wandered over to the window to look, but somehow (Thad???) the glass door got closed and in my half-awake state I didn’t notice. The result? I nearly knocked myself out at 7AM! I hit the door so hard I have no idea how I didn’t break my nose or end up with black eyes. Thank goodness there is no visible damage, but my head and my nose and my teeth have been achy ever since. Sadly though, this isn’t the first glass door that has ever taken me down... dumb doors anyway!

Coming Home?

And finally, it is looking pretty official that we will be home on July 11th. We got an email from Peace Corps today listing leave-dates for everyone. I guess "trunkiness" will soon set in, eh Matt? See you soon!