Shell in China

But, I am getting ahead of myself.

On Saturday of Easter weekend we invited several of my second-year students over to dye eggs. (Many of Thad’s students are out of town this week taking exams to continue their education. Basically, they are trying to get into bigger and better schools so that they can earn a bachelor’s degree instead of just a teaching certificate.) Erin, Hannah, Ronia and Rose all came over to enjoy their first-ever egg-coloring experience. (Again, the Easter Bunny’s box that arrived last week made this possible as it included the necessary PAAS dye kit and cute little cups for the coloring to go inside.)

First though, to color eggs, it is best to start with white eggs. (It’s hard to make brown blue, just ask the 80’s group Roxette- “What in the world can make a brown-eyed girl turn blue?”) The problem here is that where we live, we rarely see white eggs. I don’t care either way, so I have never really thought about it, but it became an issue on Friday. I needed a good two dozen white, or at least light, eggs and all there was to be found was dark brown. (Why are all of our eggs white in America???) Thad and I started by going to the small veggie market that is close to campus where they had eggs in abundance, but all of the wrong hue. Then it was into town to the Wuzhou and round-about grocery stores, again with no luck. Our last resort was the big market in town. As we headed up the street to get there we came upon what can only be described as an Easter miracle. (Okay, that may be pushing it a bit, but hey, it was almost Easter and eggs are what I was in need of!) On the corner we see not one, not two, but at least five different women selling eggs from baskets (that looked curiously like Easter egg baskets to me!) and most of their eggs were VERY light in color! What more could I ask?!? (This was a whole new kind of "Easter egg hunt!")

After quickly scurrying over to the woman who looked like she had the most light eggs, I told her that I needed twenty-four of them. She looked at me like I was crazy, but little did she know it was going to get crazier. I not only needed two dozen, but then I proceeded to pick through her wares to find the lightest of the group. She held the bag while I sorted. I knew what I was doing but I am pretty sure she had no clue and I didn’t figure it would make much of a difference if I told her I was going to make them funny colors. Once I had my eggs securely in plastic bags, (secure maybe isn’t the right word as more than one egg has met its demise coming home crammed next to other eggs in a little plastic baggy) I then wanted to buy an egg carton from her. She had these cardboard egg carriers stacked near her basket, so I asked Thad to grab one and I asked her how much it was to buy. Again I got the crazy look! She rushed over to the other women selling and after a minute of pointing and talking she came back and said three mao. That is roughly four cents in USD. Haha! Four cents! I don’t think I have ever bought anything for four cents. I spent the ride home bragging about my great bargain to Thad. Hey, I may never again have the opportunity to purchase something for a mere four cents!

Thad and I got ready early by making all 14 colors (did we have 14 as kids?!?!), boiling water for the clingy things and moving the coffee table to make enough room for everyone to dye.

The girls showed up at 1PM and the coloring commenced! At first they just looked at us like we were weird, but after we each started dunking eggs, the girls really got into the action. They were doing multi-colored eggs, using the wax crayon, adding stickers, etc. I think they had a great time. Erin planned to take one egg that came out neon pink to her mom and try to convince her it came from a funny looking chicken she saw in town! I can’t wait to hear how that story goes over.

When the eggs were dyed and in the (4-cent!) egg carton the girls were ready to head home. Now, Thad and I have NO use for two dozen funnily colored eggs, so we made the girls take the eggs with them. As they walked out the door with their eggs they were laughing about how odd people were going to think they were! Thad and I watched out the window as they made their way from campus to the dorms, getting stopped ever few steps for someone new to admire their egg artwork.

Dying eggs with the girls was a great way to celebrate the weekend. It was no cute springy new dress and purse or ham dinner with the family, but it was fun to share a bit of our holiday culture with the students. We can tell them constantly about things in America, but to actually let them play along was a lot of fun! (Which means a big shout-out goes to the Easter Bunny on your side of the ocean!!!)

I hope you all had a “Hoppy” Easter!

Last weekend (okay, I guess it has been two weekends ago now…my lazy blog writing is getting worse as the semester wears on…) was International Women’s Day. As far as I know, this isn’t really recognized in the US, but it s celebrated in China. In the days leading up to it, students asked me what I was going to do (“Nothing,” was my reply) and asked Thad what he was going to do for me (again, a reply of “Nothing.”).

The official holiday was on a Saturday and on Wednesday Rachel and I were invited to a dinner hosted by the college. We were told it was for all the women professors on campus, but before they told us about it, we overheard them discussing in Chinese about whether or not they should invite the foreign women. I think they sometimes forget we have been here for two years and understand enough of the language to have a clue what is going on around us. I guess it was lucky for them they decided to fill us in officially since we now knew it was going on!

Anyway, the point of the story take place at dinner. We all went to hotpot for the evening and took up the entire restaurant. Most departments had their own table(s). Rachel and I sat with the English department women, one of whom brought her niece with her. This teacher lives here in Chengxian, her husband lives in a different city and their baby lives with the husband’s parents. While here though, she has had her niece living with her so that she can attend kindergarten. The little girl came with her and so after eating I started asking the girl about English.

Students begin to learn English very early in China, so I asked the girl, who is five years old, what words she knew. (I asked in Chinese, as she would only know random English words and my Chinese is about the level for a kindergartener! Hehe! We were totally on the same level.) She started listing fruits, “Apple, banana…” and then she got to “puh-ar.” I was lost for a second until I realized she meant “pear.” I giggled and then had the following conversation with her:

“We say ‘pear.’”

“No, it is ‘puh-ar.”

“No, say ‘pear.’”

“My teacher says it is ‘puh-ar.’”

“I’ve spoken English for many years and it is “pear.’”

“My teacher says it is ‘puh-ar’ and she is right!”

“Nope, ‘pear.’”

“I will ask my teacher tomorrow and she will say you are wrong!”

At this point I gave up. I think for most five-year olds, their teacher is the epitome of knowledge. At that age, teachers know better than parents, scholars and even God himself. Don’t question a kindergarten teacher! (Right Candace and Cori?)

I don’t know if she ever asked her teacher or not or what answer she got. I saw her across campus a few more times after that, but then I found out yesterday that she went back to live with different relatives in a different town. I am bummed that I will never know how the conversation with her teacher went! I do know that I had a really hard time keeping a straight face as I had this argument with the little girl and that it provided entertainment for all of the other English department teachers at our table who were following it closely.

I guess my nearly thirty years of English doesn’t count for much against a kindergarten teacher…

KELSEY

This last week in class I was doing an activity called “Who Am I?” I put students into small groups (3-4 students) and they had to think of a person that everyone would know. I told them it could be a classmate, teacher, historical figure, famous singer or actor, etc. Once they had chosen their person, as a group they had to come up with ten sentences to describe him or her. The whole idea was that I would then read the sentences to the class and we would all try to guess who the person was. With that in mind, I would like to share some of the sentences so that you can see what I learned about various people.

Michelle:

*She has beautiful fingers.
*Her oral English is especially good.
*She wears pink clothes.

Thad:

*He often wears jeans.
*He always carries a big school bag.
* His girlfriend is tall and beautiful. (WHAT?!?!?)
*He is boyish.

Various Chinese teachers:

*Her hair is curly like instant noodles.
*He is like a kindly panda.
*He walks like a turtle. (Another group said the same teacher walks like a penguin.)
*He is very lonely. No women like him.

Various students:

*She is a little fat, but beautiful.
*He has lovely lips. All of the girls want to kiss him.
*His is like Mr. White. (When asked about this, it took a bit of prying, but I discovered they meant a knight in shining armor. They didn’t know how to describe this idea in English and went with white because he is always pictured on a white horse!)

I did this activity with each class throughout the week and it turned out to be a hit even if I ended up with information that I didn’t really need to have!