Just DANCE!

This is one of the first videos I took while in China.  It really kind of revealed to me in a small way how different things were.  Group exercise is a HUGE thing in China.  This is an unusually small group but I think they all work at the same hair salon and it was like a pre-work morning workout/bonding time.  There is one that happens EVERY NIGHT outside our complex's gate and there are at least 200+ people participating and sometimes more.  Most of the time though I don't really understand how it is exercise.  They really just march in a circle and sometimes wave their arms about. Up in the air. Like they just don't care AYO!

Ok I'll stop.

I really wanted to post more videos.  Because believe or not I do have a few.  And I think people should understand just how typical my life and children are here in China.  5th graders in China are the same as 5th graders in America and the apathetic attitude of a 16 year old boy is no different here.  I have a 6th grader whose middle name is Trouble with a capital 'T'.  I love him so much though and he really is a good kid even though I have to knock him around a lot because he's always in after school detention.  I've gone off on him several times in class and outside of class but I still haven't quite broken through to his little brick wall of no emotions and his I'm-too-cool-for-school adolescent 'tude. Makes ya wanna 'shake a chil'd!!!

Also now that I live in China and blog, I tend to like to learn more about Asian culture since I had no experience whatsoever with Asian culture.  Except in the times that I visited SE asia in 2007. And worked with Taiwanese and Hong Kongians and Chinese people at WOF.  So maybe I had a little.  But in my nights at home of resting and when I'm not diligently preparing for the next day's lessons...(HAHAHAHAHA...oh) I have found many entertaining things to watch they have to do with Asian culture:

1.  My Korean Husband-  A blog I follow of an Australian woman and her Korean husband living in Korea.  She draws daily comics of life with her husband and funny happenings of a Westerner living in Asian culture.  She makes me laugh and I always look forward to her posts.  Having so many Korean students, I get to learn a bit more about their culture through this fun couple.  I've even emailed Nichola with a question about Korean culture before and she actually responded!

2. FamousAmos-  He's an Asian-American that just graduated from a military academy in States but a lot of his videos are focused on his Korean background.  His motto of 'Smiling is Contagious' is definitely true.  Plus he's nice to just kind of watch. ;)

3.Speaking of China- This woman has lived in China for years and to be honest, I haven't really read a TON on her blog yet.  She's married to a Chinese man, has lived in China for 10+ years and is fluent in Mandarin.  She writes on everything to AMWF (Asian Male White Female) relationships to current struggles she still has living as a foreigner in China.

So that was fun...and the video still hasn't finished loading...Geez c'mon I wanna go to BED! 

No crying, no whining, no pinching, no punching, no hitting, no spitting, no pushing, no shoving....

We'll see if that video loads.  Kindergarten playing with their rhythm sticks.  These kids have been EN FUEGO the last few days.  They've been paying attention, remembering things from the day before and then applying it to real music.  It's like I'm a real live music teacher. ha  Also, MOTHER, take note of Emilie with fire engine red hair from Norway and eyes as big as saucers.

Silent Jenny, Daring Grace, Krazy Kevin, Eskimo Matthew, Chatty Maria, and Lovable Leah

Growling Luke, Mama Bella, Spunky Becky, Shy Justin, and Chad the Genius

Quiet little Estelle on the L, Miss Perfect Jessica (C), and Sassy Melissa

That is Samuel the Ham

Precious Sunny Dou, Roy (who I just want to squeeze), and grinny Kari

In other news,  I just discovered the wonderful art of watching YouTube videos of elementary music classes online and then repeating lessons in my own classroom, of course, tweaked to the kids' knowledge.  Half of my lessons have been things off the internet and suggestions from other first year music teacher friends.  Hey it's better than teaching them Three Blind Mice for the umpteenth or just singing with CDs.

I got my high school kids laughing pretty hard today.  I was telling them about a cultural mistake/language funny that had recently happened to me and they ate it up.  It's like when I make fun of myself and make myself look stupid is when there is the most laughs.  Not that I measure their happiness in laughter (but in daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee, in inches, in miles, in LAUGHTER, in strife.) Special hugs and brownie points to those who understand the reference.

In other news,  we had wonderful meeting today after school to discuss plans/schedules for next year so that went rather well and was productive.  We're looking at more concerts, field trips, and a school dance! So excited for what the new school year will bring but am definitely ready (as are the kids) for a good extended break!

I also need some yarps for my own strength to get through the days and to have a spirit of discernment about me to make wise decisions.  I do have specifics about the discernment thing but no need to list them here.

Also, I must list that there are 3 Tv shows I'm currently waiting on.  The Walking Dead: premiering in October in which I will once again get to watch my Korean boyfriend Steven Yeun, Sherlock; which is my English beau and Doctor Who so I can see how much Peter Capaldi will ruin or make awesome the 12 reincarnation.

 I am also a total nerd if you couldn't tell.

 I'm looking for a new fandom to get into. I was leaning towards Game of Thrones but also had Breaking Bad or Merlin in the back of my mind.

I've also been searching for a gif to match this blogst and can't find one.  I fail.

Also the blogst title is from the lecture I give them everytime we move seats or do something they don't think is going to be fun. (when in reality they end up laughing and giggling by the end.)

This is ending really lamely...

Anasseyo!

Are we there yet?

While everyone is graduating and ending their first year of teaching, heading off to summer vacations, etc.  I'm still here.

In China.

Working.

Everyday. (Except Saturday and Sunday)

There's still 2 more big events for the school and still stuff I need to teach these kids.  There's lots of 'stuff' to do and it's getting down to the wire.  I've kept myself motivated with Sherlock, Modern Family, and The Big Bang Theory.

I may well end up looking like this by the end of the year.

Sherlock gifs are ALWAYS appropriate.  I also recently discovered that several of my students also have a love for Benedict and his Sherlockian ways.  It's really bonded myself and a few students together in a whole different light.  I can now comfortably make Sherlock jokes in class and I won't get slow clapped out of the room.

Also Harry Potter gifs are greatly under appreciated.  I need a little spice in my life can't you tell?

I attended a friend's birthday party yesterday where I made the cake.  And by made I mean poured ingredients from a box and mixed in some eggs, oil, and water.  It was lemon flavor and wonderfully delicious in this country of no sugar products.

Also I tried to go and get work done today and instead there were people screaming, laughing, and yelling all over my quaint little, normally quiet coffee shop. That's ok. I didn't need to get stuff done...Carry on.

I should also mentioned using sarcasm to bilingual people is not always taken the right way.  But it's still fun to do.  I made the mistake of being sarcastic to my friend Jack and he didn't understand.  It was easily made clear though since one of his favorite shows is The Big Bang Theory and I then asked him if he needed a sarcasm sign like Sheldon does.  He then began laughing and finally understood not to take it so literally.

That's all my dear people.

Beijing or Bust

The most goober picture of myself I could find in my stash of pics from my recent trip to Beijing.

As you probably know, within the first month of coming to China I packed bags for a week long trip to Beijing for TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) training.  8 hour a day classes, hardly any breaks, some people that I really did not get along with much, and boring lectures did not really make for a great first impression of Beijing.  In fact,  I would say I hated the city.  There are many foreigners here that say they would.

But,

May Holiday was fast approaching and week long break from school was well needed.  My gal pal Bri and I decided a trip to Beijing was what we needed.  In addition, her sister would be in town visiting and we needed to give her the full tour!

So we went to the Forbidden City.  And I, of course, took an obligatory selfie with a Disney spot.  For those uncultured people, it's the place where Mulan gets honored in front of all of China and she has a great big last hooplah fight with Shan-Yu on the roof.

Then we went to the GREAT WALL OF CHINA! How many people can say they have walked a Great wonder of the world. Me. Twice round actually since I went to Angkor Wat on my first international trip that inspired me to move overseas in the first place

HA! THROWBACK!!! Anyway then I took an obligatory selfie at the GREAT WALL. With some old ruins.  That were possibly past a sign that said keep out.  That we possibly crawled through a window and sauntered past said sign. And then possibly proceeded to walk wherever we wanted and get great views of the mountains and completely overgrown parts of the Wall. But only POSSIBLY

We also met a charming Englishman at the Great Wall whom we then decided to spend our remaining day and a half with in Beijing.  We at some Mexican food, Pizza Hut, and Dairy Queen all of which he had never really experienced much less with 3 American girls

Toby, Bri, Myself, and Corsaire in front of the Olympic Bird's Nest.  (Also this photo credit goes to Corsaire. I stole her from her fb)

This was our cheesy tourist picture with peace signs and everything while many Chinese people stood around, watched, and snapped their own pictures.

Overall, it was a time well enjoyed in Beijing, and I'd say I could generally find my way around the city quite well by now.  Plus whenever, I decide to finally make my way to Great Britain (which WILL happen at some point) I now have a personal tour guide! Though Toby is actually a great mate to have. (Look at my British slang already being used!)  It's amazing how being in a different country brings foreigners and just people in general together.  I feel in America, people are not so outgoing or willing to try new things.  As a well seasoned traveler (I'd personally say at this point in my life), I can say that travelling has DEFINITELY made me a more outgoing person and more comfortable with new things in my everyday life.  When you're in a different culture, you don't have choice but to deal and just be comfortable with different obstacles.

So that's all for now.  Geez the ideas are just flowing this week.

How many miracles do you want to occur?

I wanted to take today's blogst to tell about my wonderful Chinese friends I have made while being here.  In earlier blogsts, I occasionally mentioned about wanting to have opportunities to speak Chinese more, make Chinese friends, and basically connect with the culture of China on a deeper level.  Working at my school where there are ALL Korean students, all American teachers and several Chinese staff who all speak fluent English it is difficult to broaden my horizons.  Especially since I work a regular 40+ hour job here unlike most foreign teachers living in China who work maybe only around 15-20 hours a week.

Over the semester, I have managed to make some national friends.  A few have been through mutual acquaintances and another happened totally by chance.  Some friends speak no English whatsoever, while others have the vocabulary of a native English speaker.

Carol: My Chinese mama.  She adopted myself and two other friends within the first month we moved to Yantai.  She and husband have taken us out multiple times for dinner, invited us over to their house for dinner and multiple other activities. She is a Family Member and her son lives in Shanghai and study abroad in France for a year or so, so she knows what it is like to have children that live abroad.  She never fails to greet us with a smile and tell how much she loves us.

Jack:  My newest friend in Yantai.  I met him on the Beach during an Easter BBQ.  We became fast friends.  He attends a local university and is an English language major.  His English is very good and it's easy to communicate but at times his accent overtakes his speech or he sometimes forgets to switch between Chinese and English when we're speaking.  He loves learning English and is very dedicated to his studies and always wanting to use high level words whenever he speaks.  An interesting thing about him is a way that he studies English is by watching Barack Obama speeches and episodes of The Big Bang Theory.

Noah:  Noah (as my good friend Bri and I affectionately named him) is an excellent masseuse.  This man knows where it's at.  He speaks no English except for Hello and My Name is Noah and a few numbers.  He really is a fun guy to talk to and just watch.  The man actually knows and has been trained in Kung Fu and looks like a freaking Kung Fu master when he gets going.  He's also basically boss at rock climbing and basically just being fit in general.

Wang Yi Lin:  This woman.  Lord bless her.  She NEVER fails to make me laugh and just be there for general conversation during my work day.  She is ALWAYS there for a chat and to help me with whatever I need.  Wang is a no nonsense woman though that doesn't take crap from anybody though.  She is not afraid to tell someone when they're acting dumb.  She speaks English well and is our school's receptionist. It's very entertaining to hear her speak Chinese as it's normally at a very high pitch and rapid speech making her sound like an old Chinese grandma screaming at random passersby. 

Jessie:  I hate that I don't get to spend as much time with her as I want to since we're both busy in our respective classrooms throughout the day.  But let me tell you, when we get going, we get going.  She tells me when my Chinese sucks and agrees with me when we decide we should just start selling our students to other teachers to the highest bidder (or lowest bidder when the kids are really driving us nuts).  I know I can always call her if I run into trouble somewhere and get stuck in a language jam.  I admire her sassy self and she's not afraid to 'shake a child' if needed.

So those are just a few of my wonderful Chinese friends that have made living here so much better.  Please keep them in your thoughts and blessings this week.  I also ask that you keep YAS in your yarps as new teachers are being hired and contact information between them and veteran teachers are being sent.  HE is doing great things in this city as KING!

PS The title of this post comes from my friend Jack as one of his often said quotes that makes me laugh.

Kindergartners talk about babies

My kindergartners were full of them today. For some reason or another, they really wanted to talk about babies so we took a couple of minutes to discuss.

When I informed them I had no children they were...shocked to say the least.  It was an uproar. How dare I NOT have children!

Student 1: "Miss McClure, why you no have baby? You no want?!"

In response one of them sassily responded:
Student 2: "OF COURSE she have no baby! She is MISS, no MRS.!!!"

Student 3: If you no have baby why you have thees? *puts both hands on his chest*
I must say I just about lost it at this point but thankfully they graced over this fact.

Student 4: "But Miss Zhang (Kindergarten TA) have girl. She no MRS!"

Me: Well what about Mrs. Gambill (their kindergarten teacher)?  Does she have a baby?

Student 2: No! She no have! So she only MISS no MRS!

Student 5: NOOOO! She marry! She MRS!

Student 6: Yes, She marry! She marry MR. Gambill. ...But they no have baby.

*Everyone turns to me*

Student 6: Why they no have baby Miss McClure?

Me: Well not everyone who is married has babies.

Student 5: My mother she have me! But she MRS!  Only MRS can have babies.  
Thank goodness someone has already put the thought only married people have babies

Student 7: Kari, she say she marry Roy one day and they become marry and they have baby!
Kari and Roy both got little sheepish, grins on their faces and giggled while Kari tried to cover up Student 7's mouth.

Student 4: My mother she have me.  She girl. Only girl have baby. No boy!

Student 5: Yes only girls have baby. NO BOY! They only marry girl! And help make baby.


And that's what happens sometimes in kindergarten music class.

(Rest assured we did get to our song and the lesson I had planned for the day and they had fun and the health education class on babies ended.)

Not having title

DISCLAIMER: I ENJOY LIVING IN CHINA BUT THERE ARE SOMETIMES THINGS THAT ARE FRUSTRATING.

Such as not having simple everyday needs/things in stores.
One such example is cheese.  Sure I can go to the store and get cheese in blocks, bricks, slices, sticks, shredded you name it I can find it in cheese form. HOWEVER,  I only buy cheese if I'm feeling particularly wealthy that day.  A bag of shredded cheese here costs roughly 35-40 kuai roughly 6-7 USD.  And anyone who is normal knows a bag of cheese is really only enough for one good Mexican dish or a couple of small salads.  Or ya know just to eat in pinches.

Which leads me to Mexican food.  Not a thing.  NO taco seasoning. NONE! This means NO tortillas (except at special hole in the wall places) and NO refried beans.  There are chili peppers and things to make Mexican food but lets be serious nothing is really as good without some Old El Paso taco seasoning.  (I only have one packet left) And NO CREAM CHEESE WITH WHICH TO MAKE ENCHILADAS.

Salads: Not a thing in China. Along with NO RANCH DRESSING.  All the makings of a salad are available with vegetables but that requires time, chopping, slicing, washing....I just want a salad I can pour out of a bag.

Ice cream: China is not known for it's sweet things.  The Chinese children have been deprived of ice cream sandwiches, dilly bars, dip cones, bomb pops, drumsticks, and of course Ben and Jerry's.  Here we have Haagen Daas at the wonderful price of around 10 USD for a single serving little cup of Vanilla ice cream.  Then you have the wonderful choice of ice cream bars in wonderful flavours like Green tea, Durian, milk/coconut, corn and Red bean.  I have managed to find some decent vanilla/choco swirl Ice cream bars after a chance buy at the local grocery store but nothing much better.  We also had a Baskin-Robbins open up down the street but I haven't had a chance to frequent the establishment lately.

Cookies: Okay there are cookies in China like oreos and chips ahoy but all crunchy. Nothing chewey or peanut buttery.

Candy: Uhhh....lollipops. Skittles, m&ms, ridiculously overpriced Dove and hershey's chocolate. Annnnddd....that's about it that actually tastes decent.  Every other piece of candy I have consumed in China is a diabetics most delightful dream.  The candy has hardly any taste at all and basically no sugar content whatsoever.  And there are supposed to be all these different "Flavors" like orange, pineapple, strawberry, and Chinese favorite flavor, MILK. (Which is DISGUSTING)

MILK: can we just talk about this for a minute?! THERE IS NO DECENT MILK IN THIS COUNTRY.  Seriously.  ALL milk comes in 1 liter sized BOXES and sits on a 'refrigerated' (NOT) shelf until it is bought.  This is good for the store as the milk has a long shelf life but as soon as you open that little sucker you have around 72 hours until you need to start whipping that milk into cream. In fact sometimes it starts to get chunky the next day.  And that's even AFTER I put it in my refrigerator.  (As an aside I apparently am unable to spell refrigerator. I just spelled it wrong again and had to redo it.)  I have tried probably close to 20 different brands of milk in China and the result is always the same.

GRANOLA BARS/CLIFF BARS/PROTEIN BARS/SOMETHING TO GET ME THROUGH LONG DAYS: CHINA HAS NOTHING!!!!!!!!

I'm just posting this without a title as protest.


*I really do love living in this country. I do. Promise* :)