Striking my very last pose in front of the Tsinghua Experimental School in Shenzhen - International School Section Chinese lesson:
再见 = zai jian = to see again = good-bye
Tonight was the ISS teachers' party to celebrate the Chinese New Year and end of the semester. Since I am still recovering from my illness, I was a bit skeptical about the high-energy activities planned (rumor was "sports day") and the dumpling-making activity. But after writing 7 single-spaced pages reviewing each of my classes in detail - an assignment sprung on the foreign teachers at the last possible moment - and an afternoon nap, I dragged myself back to the ISS for the party.
If I thought my stomach was churning earlier in the week, the snack selection exponentiated my illness. Here is a picture - can you identify any of these common Chinese snack foods?
Clockwise, beginning with the far left: Chicken feet, lotus, seaweed, pig intestine, tofu, duck neck, spicy duck heart, duck head, cow intestine.I ate a duck heart because it appeared to be the most edible snack provided. Alan, the principal, explained to me what it was by making his fingers like veins and arteries and pumping the heart. I was pretty disgusted and declined to eat another. Needless to say, at my table everyone sided with Alan - no one could understand why people in the United States don't eat this part of the animal, and how it could possible be construed as gross. I admitted that it doesn't make much sense; we eat the legs and wings of the chicken, so why not the feet? Maybe it's something about the small clawed toenails...
We also played some typical party games, and I won a prize (bottle of lotion - practical as always) for tipping the most water from my glass into the Vice Principal's glass, both of us using only our teeth. Awkward. I also lost at a game where I had to count aloud to 5 in Chinese and then choose a number, 1-10, while giving a hand signal for a number different from the one I had chosen and the one chosen by the participant before me... all the thumping beat of Chinese techno. My punishment? Chug a glass of beer. Is this Shenzhen, China or Madison, Wisconsin?!
My favorite part, however, was the dumpling-making and consuming. I was involved in almost everything - from cracking eggs to chopping meat to shaping the dumplings. I learned how to fold dumplings, or "jiaozi," in the style of 4 different provinces, and of course ate way too many of them.
Chopping the pork to put into the dumplings - a huge task considering we had half a pig to cut up (skin and all!)
Left: The assembly line where I got my dumping-forming eduacation. Middle: Dumplings are ready for boiling! Right: One of many huge dumplings John insisted on making during the evening. ("Next one's gonna be the size of a football!")
As we continued forming and chowing down the dumplings, the principal and other school administrators walked around toasting each teacher individually. I was the only native English speaker there, but they switched to English for me and toasted me warmly. Alan told me I would be greatly missed, promised me a copy of the kung fu dance DVD, and promised to keep in touch. Sissy told me I was the "best partner ever" (she was my OSC co-teacher). Even Mr Gao smiled hugely and asked, "Tonight, do you happy?" Of course, tonight, I do happy.
Yet the happy evening was inevitably twinged with the bittersweet regret of departure. At one point, I looked around at all the teachers speaking in rapid Chinese around me and thought about how strange it was that I was here, accepted into this group. Four months ago I did not know a single person here - they were nameless, faceless, and totally removed from my reality. And in four short months I had come to feel totally at ease with them, communicating in a mix of broken English and Chinese, fumbling across cultural boundaries and laughing at common mistakes.
As I got ready to leave and wandered through the room saying good bye (再见), I received some of the nicest compliments I have ever gotten in my life. This alone maybe have been worth the hellish several-month long visa process, as I think I have enough uplifting memories now to lift me through the stresses of law school. Kevin, for example, toasted me, "Today I learn you are leaving, and am very sad, but feel very lucky to know you. But even more, I think your students are lucky, and everyone who knows you is lucky. Because when you smile, people smile. When you laugh, people laugh. When you happy, everyone happy."
My POI co-teacher Lisa, me, and John: Yes, we do happy.
We also played some typical party games, and I won a prize (bottle of lotion - practical as always) for tipping the most water from my glass into the Vice Principal's glass, both of us using only our teeth. Awkward. I also lost at a game where I had to count aloud to 5 in Chinese and then choose a number, 1-10, while giving a hand signal for a number different from the one I had chosen and the one chosen by the participant before me... all the thumping beat of Chinese techno. My punishment? Chug a glass of beer. Is this Shenzhen, China or Madison, Wisconsin?!
My favorite part, however, was the dumpling-making and consuming. I was involved in almost everything - from cracking eggs to chopping meat to shaping the dumplings. I learned how to fold dumplings, or "jiaozi," in the style of 4 different provinces, and of course ate way too many of them.
Chopping the pork to put into the dumplings - a huge task considering we had half a pig to cut up (skin and all!)
Left: The assembly line where I got my dumping-forming eduacation. Middle: Dumplings are ready for boiling! Right: One of many huge dumplings John insisted on making during the evening. ("Next one's gonna be the size of a football!")
As we continued forming and chowing down the dumplings, the principal and other school administrators walked around toasting each teacher individually. I was the only native English speaker there, but they switched to English for me and toasted me warmly. Alan told me I would be greatly missed, promised me a copy of the kung fu dance DVD, and promised to keep in touch. Sissy told me I was the "best partner ever" (she was my OSC co-teacher). Even Mr Gao smiled hugely and asked, "Tonight, do you happy?" Of course, tonight, I do happy.
Yet the happy evening was inevitably twinged with the bittersweet regret of departure. At one point, I looked around at all the teachers speaking in rapid Chinese around me and thought about how strange it was that I was here, accepted into this group. Four months ago I did not know a single person here - they were nameless, faceless, and totally removed from my reality. And in four short months I had come to feel totally at ease with them, communicating in a mix of broken English and Chinese, fumbling across cultural boundaries and laughing at common mistakes.
As I got ready to leave and wandered through the room saying good bye (再见), I received some of the nicest compliments I have ever gotten in my life. This alone maybe have been worth the hellish several-month long visa process, as I think I have enough uplifting memories now to lift me through the stresses of law school. Kevin, for example, toasted me, "Today I learn you are leaving, and am very sad, but feel very lucky to know you. But even more, I think your students are lucky, and everyone who knows you is lucky. Because when you smile, people smile. When you laugh, people laugh. When you happy, everyone happy."
My POI co-teacher Lisa, me, and John: Yes, we do happy.
2 comments:
The snack picture might be one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen/read about. Can't believe you ate a heart!
not gonna lie... I choked up a bit myself. cheers to you, amber:)
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