As I mentioned in a recent post, cereal is something we’ve been missing here in China. We’ve spotted some in a few Western-style grocery stores, but it was 40 kuai for one small box. Way too much for our meager salary.

My personal obsession with cereal has even caused me to have regular dreams about finding cheap cereal here. No joke, about once a week I dream about finding cereal we can afford. Then I wake up so happy, thinking that I can just go to the kitchen and eat some cereal, until I dejectedly realize it was just a dream.

Last night, we decided to try shopping at Walmart. It’s about a 30 minute bus ride from where we live, so we hadn’t really shopped there before.

After picking up some winter clothing items, we headed downstairs (all the grocery department stores are multi-level in Tianjin) and checked out the food selection.

One of the first things I noticed in the refrigerated section was that they had real, honest-to-goodness milk. Most of the grocery stores just have boxed milk or yogurt in a bottle that looks like milk.

So I had a sliver of hope that if Walmart carried fresh milk, it just might carry cereal. Still, I expected that if it did have cereal, it would be as expensive as the other stores.

As we walked from the refrigerated section to the boxed goods section, I glanced up and literally had my dreams come true.

Just as I dreamed so many times, I walked past several center displays and found one with CEREAL ON SALE. In my dreams, the cheapest the cereal had gone was 20 kuai a box. But in Walmart, the cereal was only 12.5 kuai a box! I was so excited, I started singing the Lion King song to Matt. (You know, the one where Simba is being held triumphantly above Pride Rock.)

Granted, the selection wasn’t great, but when you’ve been deprived of cereal this long, you take what you can get. We got one box of each kind of cereal available (Corn Flakes and Coco Balls. Forget Coco Puffs, it’s Coco Balls in China.) We went back to the refrigerated section and get some fresh milk to accompany our new cereal.

The first bite today was pretty much the most amazing thing I’ve eaten in China.

Naaaaaazigonya!

Today wasn’t our favorite day teaching so far.

Over the weekend, we attended an all-day teacher development day with our organization. It was really great to get some guidance from teachers who have been teaching in universities in China for much longer than we have. (Although it isn’t hard to beat two weeks!) They gave us some great tips and shared some insightful experiences.

Thinking through the information we learned this weekend, we started reworking our lesson plans.

But today didn’t seem to go well for either of us. One difficulty we have is that our school isn’t the most straightforward about how the overall structure of the school works. When we started teaching two weeks ago, we didn’t even know if all of our students were English majors. (It turns out that they are all English majors, and everyone in each class has the same “track” – Business English, English Translation, English Journalism, or English Literature. Each class takes all of their weekly classes together…so they are all together learning the same things from the same teachers. They don’t go to different classes with different people like we do in the States.) We had no idea how many other classes our students had and what they were doing in those classes. I asked one of my classes how many classes they have in a week, and they were pretty sure that the answer was 12. (One person insisted it was 11, and another person insisted it was 8. Most of them agreed that it was 12. I have no idea why it’s confusing to figure out how many classes they have in a week.)

So, with our initial lack of information, we just started teaching with the best plan we could create. As we learn more about how the school works, we realize that a lot of our plans could have been better made, had we known what was going on in the big picture (i.e. we could actually work together with other teachers to make sure we are building on the other classes instead of repeating or missing something important). But even knowing a little more information now, there isn’t any infrastructure (that we’re aware of) in our school to connect teachers with one another.

At a dinner a couple of weeks ago with the heads of each of the English “tracks,” who also teach classes, Matt asked how we as foreign teachers could best help the students. What could we offer that was unique? They looked bewildered and said that they weren’t sure. Then they directed us to ask another foreign teacher who has been at the school for a couple of years. He gave the usual pat answer – be enthusiastic, try hard, encourage the students.

Right, we’re doing that. But how do we TEACH them? So far, it seems that no matter what we do, the students aren’t visibly improving in their writing. It’s strange because they know grammar. They know the rules of English probably better than we do. But when they have to actually apply those rules to a unique piece of writing, they write pretty horrendously.

At our development meeting this weekend, we talked about how Chinese students have a lot of head knowledge, but their ability to practically use that information is limited. They aren’t encouraged to think on their feet, but to memorize and pass exams. So now we’re expected to take them to the next level, but it’s a frustrating process to see them understanding in class, and then making the same mistakes over and over again in their writing.

I think teaching speaking would be less frustrating, because it’s not so detail-oriented and tedious. When I have their writing in front of me, it’s glaringly obvious how many mistakes there are, and if I feel overwhelmed by the number of mistakes, I sure don’t want to mark up their papers with all of the mistakes they’re making and have them feel overwhelmed.

So we’ll see…we’re both still trying to figure out how best to use our classtime with them and hoping that by the end of the semester, they’ve improved somehow.

One thing is for sure, this job is turning out to be a lot more work than we anticipated. The thing that makes it worth it (it’s certainly not the salary!) is getting to know some of the students. I, especially, get excited by the students who care so much about growing that they ask me to give them extra help, to mark up their papers with all of their mistakes and to give them ideas for practicing outside of class. It’s exciting to see them so passionate about their education and taking advantage of me being here. One thing that I feel frustrated with is that I want to be able to teach the students things they couldn’t learn from a Chinese English teacher. I want to teach them things that they would need to know if they attend a Western university for grad school or apply to a Western company (how to write a resume, research paper, etc.)

I don’t want to just teach them grammar and how to apply it, because they could learn most of that easily from Chinese teachers. But their grammar needs so much work, I think the resume and research paper I’m having them write later in the semester might turn out to be a hot mess. So I waver between wanting to scrap my good intentions of showing them how to write “Western” style things, since their Chinese teachers won’t teach them those things, and just simplifying everything and only doing the basics in order to save myself (and possibly them) the frustration of pushing them further than they can easily go.

But anyway, enough ranting about teaching woes. It’s time for us to put this Monday behind us. Hopefully Wednesday (the next day we teach) will be a better day!

I finally had time to get back into the world of book reviewing for my Book Sneeze program. (I can still do them via ebooks here in China!)

The first book I chose to review is a memoir by Brenda Warner titled One Call Away.

I knew I wanted to read this book the moment I saw it. I’m not a sports fan at all. I’m lucky if I can recall the name of any football star, no matter how well-known they may be. But that’s changed just a little bit with my newfound love of Dancing with the Stars. I started watching the reality tv show about celebrities learning to ballroom dance two seasons ago. The women at my office would talk about it every week and were ridiculously excited about the show. I asked them about it, and it sounded interesting, so the when the next season came around, I gave it a chance.

I was hooked. I loved the humor of the judges and the awkwardness of the celebrities who couldn’t dance. But what I loved most of all was learning about the lives of “celebrities” (who to me, were just normal people, because I had never heard of most of them before the show) and seeing them grow throughout the show. Many of them begin the show with no confidence in their ability to dance or in their beauty/gracefulness. Some of the men are football players or wrestlers who have to reign in their massive bodies and glide around with a tiny woman in their arms. Some of them fail miserably, but others give it a lot of effort and turn into great dancers.

The first time I heard of Kurt Warner was when he competed on Dancing with the Stars last season. He was one of the football players that could definitely look awkward dancing (especially the Latin dances…the hip movement was rather lacking!), but when he worked hard, his ballroom dances somehow came across as elegant and graceful. But what impressed me most was his relationship with his family. After one dance, instead of staying on the stage to hug his dancing partner and listen to the critiques of the judges, he ran across the stage and kissed his wife. He dedicated one of the dances to his wife because it was their anniversary. They do a lot of “behind the scenes” with the celebrities on the show, and in his “behind the scene,” he learned how to be more delicate and graceful by having a tea party with his daughters.

When I saw Brenda’s book, I knew I wanted to learn more about this family. Were they the real deal? Or was this all a reality show drama to boost the ratings? Most American sports stars aren’t exactly “family men.” Most of the other football stars I’ve seen on the show aren’t even married. So how did this guy become so down-to-earth and in love with his family?

I won’t spoil all the details of this book, because it truly is worth the read. But I will say that the Warner family is absolutely the real deal. Their faith in God, their commitment to Him and to each other during good times and bad times is genuine. There were many moments in Brenda’s memoir when I laughed, moments when I cried, and moments when I gasped in horror/pain right along with her.

She tells her story and that of her family with a straightforward, honest style. She doesn’t leave out the less flattering moments. When I came to the end of this book, I prayed for this beautiful family and felt honored to have had a glimpse into their lives through Brenda’s memoir.

It normally takes me a week or two to finish a book of this size, but Brenda’s story was so fascinating and poignant that I finished it in two nights. (And I stayed up way too late both nights because I could not put this book down!) I highly recommend it with no reservations.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Some of you may be wondering…

Matt and Angel are so far away in China. What could I send them to let them know I care?

Cards, notes, emails are nice and always very appreciated!

But there are also some physical comforts we’re missing here (or thinking we should have brought, if only we had realized how much we’d use them/want them here).

So if you have the hankering to send us a care package as a birthday/Christmas/anytime gift, here are some items we miss or can’t find here:

-Legit chocolate

I miss real dark chocolate. (photo by cubicgarden, flickr.com)

We’re not talking your run-of-the-mill, high-fructose-corn-syrup-milk-chocolate nonsense. (We can find that here, but it is outrageously expensive…a small box of Dove chocolate is over 100 yuan. To put that in perspective, we usually spend less than 10 yuan each on our entire meal at the school cafeteria.) No, what I miss is genuine, dark chocolate, like the bars that cost $3 US a piece, but are so rich that I eat one piece a week and the entire bar lasts for more than a month. (See http://chocolatebar.com/products.php?product=3oz.-Organic-Dark-Chocolate for an example.) I thought I’d be able to find chocolate at least at a Western store here, but if I do ever find some legit chocolate, I’m sure it will cost half a year’s salary for me. So unfortunately, in China, it looks like chocolate is out of the question…unless you send some

-Totally Insane Card Game

This is a game our friends from college introduced to us. The great thing about this game is you can play with an unlimited number of people, which is helpful when you have a dozen students over and they want to play a game. Apparently, Chinese students are enamored with Uno. The Totally Insane Card Game is very similar to Uno…but, well, a lot less boring. So this would be a great game to introduce to our students and keep ourselves more entertained than endless rounds of Uno would do. You can find the game online: http://www.totallyinsanecardgame.com/ and even have it shipped directly to our address in China! Unfortunately, it’s also outside of our teacher salary budget, so we don’t get Totally Insane without your help.

-Granola

Another thing we have not found yet is granola (though I suppose we could make it if we had the time and equipment….which we don’t). We’ve found some American cereal and granola in a couple of the larger supermarkets that are further away from where we live. But again, they are remarkably expensive and unattainable for us. It seems we need an expat salary to get expat goods (like granola).

And that is all! We managed to fit all of our other expensive Western goods into our suitcases or find suitable alternatives here. (Or at least we’re pretty sure we will find them some day.)

Now it’s time to go finish our lesson plans while we listen to the firecrackers outside! (It’s Mid-Autumn Festival here, so apparently, it’s the perfect opportunity to light off firecrackers.)

Google (boy)
House (boy)
Wanna (girl)
Pooh (girl)
Eagle (girl)
Meteor (girl)
Laughing (boy)
L-Candy (girl)

These are just a few of the uh…interesting…English names our new students have given us this week.

I had come across some ideas on English teaching websites for teaching students how to choose an appropriate English name. I thought I would focus on this for a few minutes in my two freshmen classes, but surely sophomores and graduate level students would have appropriate English names, right?

So I went to my first class last week (English writing for sophomores) and got quite the surprise. A few students didn’t have English names yet. Out of the students who did have them, most were good. (Cindy, Joyce, Kari, Lara, Mark, Paul, Sophie, Sue)

Then there were those that almost got it, but missed the mark a little bit. (Orianthi – apparently a famous singer from Australia, but not the most well-known of English names. Magea – pronounced like “Maggie”. Sun – it works, but pretty obvious that you’re Asian, sorry. Ollivia – why two l’s? And so on.)

Then there were the students who, at first, I thought I would just let them have their weird English names. If they want a weird name, who am I to thwart their creativity, right? Particularly when some of them seem quite attached to their English names (I had them write a journal entry about why they chose their English names).

However, as classes progressed through the week, I realized that it may not be fair to these students to let them go on having weird English names without at least pointing out that they’re weird. After all, if I had to randomly choose a Chinese name, it would probably mean “Stupid Poor Boy” or something. It’s not their fault that they don’t know much about Western culture or English names. So why not choose the name of your favorite cartoon (Pooh), when you probably have no idea it also means to go number two in the bathroom.

After my first day of teaching, I started preparing a little summary of how to choose an English name, what’s the point of having an English name, etc. I told them that if they choose an English name that is strange or new to foreigners, they might as well just use their Chinese name, since both names will be equally difficult for foreigners to remember/pronounce. And some names might even get them laughed at.

They seemed to understand. They laughed at my jokes in the appropriate places. They nodded and smiled. And yet still, some persisted in writing unusual English names on the attendance sheet. Now I’m going through their journal entries, and I decided to write a personal note to some of the obviously-a-poor-English-name-choice people, hoping that if I point out the strangeness of their particular name and offer some alternative suggestions, that they might realize it’s probably not in their best interest to be called “Spring” (a boy) or “Belly” (a girl).

We’ll see what happens when they get their suggestions. I don’t feel comfortable forcing them to have normal English names. After all, if L-Candy thinks that’s a cool name, she can go for it. Maybe she’ll be a famous rock star someday, at which point, L-Candy (or LC as she likes to be called for short) will be the perfect English name for her. I don’t want to stifle their creativity…far from it.

But if someone wants to be a translator for a Fortune 500 company, they might want to have an English name that complements their skill set. Somehow “Gila” (a girl) probably won’t give the right image for a lucrative career in business.