Boo for the torch relay?

So, Ethan's in Iowa having fun at a wedding and I'm here in Qingdao being "productive". This morning I was OK with that because on Monday the torch relay is coming to Qingdao and, because E and I are the only teachers in the summer program, I have the day off to go witness all the madness. However, this afternoon I heard from my friend Zhang Rui that "normal" people won't have access to the torch wielding fun. Zhang Rui works right near where the festivities are going down and she said that police are planning on setting up barricades barring pedestrians from participating. Apparently only a handful of people have been granted access. Hi-Sense, one of the prominent Chinese companies here in the city, has only given out 20 invites to its 20,000 employees! Not only that but Zhang Rui and her co-workers received an email this week stating that anyone who opens their office windows on the morning of the torch relay will receive a fine!

What the heck?!? I wasn't planning on boycotting but now I might have to.

I'm teaching the VIP as usual tomorrow morning - we will be practicing how to ask for and respond to requests: Can you get me into the torch relay? I'm crossing my fingers it's a yes. If I have to I will wear my "I heart China" t-shirt, but at this point only grudgingly.

In other news, this week in teaching Ethan and I went back to our roots herding teenagers. We took our students on a field trip on Monday and had them search for "bad English" throughout the city {the winning find: "Be your own brain" worn on a t-shirt}. After the scavenger hunt we went to a restaurant for pizza and then returned to the school for a screening of Men In Black. It was a fun day, but it threw everyone off - mostly digestively poor things - so much pizza!

Here they are. My favorites...

Acting Crazy

Training for America - for some, their first pizza experience

Inventive pizza eating

Can't Say Fairer Than That

My first "American Culture" class with my new group of Alabama University-bound Chinese students. Here's how they finished the sentence: "American Culture is..."

In no particular order...



Bill Gates... Wall Street... Hollywood... Elections... Edison... Multicultural... oil policy... plantation... terrorism... anti-terrorism... cola... company... immigrate... 911... basketball... hero... Watergate... racial discrimination... diplomacy... NASDAQ ... individual... travel... buffalo... jeans... Dr. Lee... shopping mall... beef steak... Rockies... white house... colonize... punk... negro... black... outer space... CO2 (greenhouse effect)... Nixon... information technology... movies... discovery... Neverland... religion... God... Overbearing... Iraq... Bible... automobile... TV series... friendship... West Point... Hawaiian Dance... Blues... Party.... Jazz... Hip Hop... Old School... Country Music... Army... Human Rights... Festival... Disney... flourishing... Armstrong... drugs... Yellowstone... BBQ... Gun... Sex... Slave... Korean War... constitution... democratic

With a list like this I know I'm going to enjoy teaching this class. Personal favorites: "overbearing" - pretty right on the money with that one, and also: "old school" just because.

Singing Zai Jian to the Semester

Why is it that goodbyes always seem to take place when you're in a state of total exhaustion?

This week at least, it's because I've been teaching double. In exchange for a tricky visa extension that has allowed us to stay in China for the Olympics as planned (and a little more pay), Ethan and I have signed on to teach for six additional weeks at OU in a summer program for Alabama-bound students. The new group of students is dreamily small (only 12 so far!), but this week we've been juggling the teaching commitments of getting this new program up and running as well as finishing out the final week with our other 200+ students. But for me at least, the madness is over. Poor Ethan still has to get up and teach at 8 AM tomorrow, sorry honey!

Last night though, tired as we were, it was time to say goodbye. For the past couple of weeks we've hosted a couple of "movie nights" for our 70 or so first year students who have come to be our favorites (mainly because we can gossip about them together). We've showed them "The Shawshank Redemption" and also the most recent "Pride and Prejudice" which were both well loved and deemed "perfect" by resident movie buff, Hebe. And, last night we took over the media room once more for a goodbye party and to share by request some of our pictures. Ethan put together a great sampling of our adventures over the last three years that included beautiful scenery from the US in Yosemite, Zion and the Whites as well as pictures of our travels in Guatemala, Belize and Honduras, many of which have appeared on his blog. We've been so lucky to have such adventures!



When our show was over, though, no one really wanted to leave. Even the slacker boys who have all but stopped breezing into class these days (but amazingly came to look at pictures!) remained. I don't know who demanded it first, but what they wanted was a song (or a dance, it was up to us). I have to admit in my exhausted state there was a part of me that felt like I had sung and danced enough over the course of the semester for this group, but as there was a microphone attached to the media console, Ethan and I gave in. Ethan sang "Yesterday" and then we did a duet to that song from "The Breakfast Club" (I managed the "hey-hey-hey-heys" but drew a blank on the verses, sorry Ethan). So terrible! But I'm glad we broke the ice. One by one, and with a little coercion, our braver students came up to the mic to sing us goodbye, leaving me with some of my fondest memories of this semester. Not only that but Hebe and a few others stayed later to present us with two wall hangings to remember them by - very sweet.



Here's a a video of three of our songbird students singing the official Olympic song, "Welcome to Beijing" - you can hardly see a thing (that's Costa Rica in the background), but hopefully you can hear their sweet voices. I will miss them.

"Welcome to Beijing" - Sunny, Olivia, and Hebe

Let Me OK!™

This week after watching and discussing some TV commercial parodies I found online (my favorite: a comedy sketch that I found on YouTube from Left of Center for "Invisi-bandages"), I gave my first year classes the assignment of writing and acting in their own TV commercials for products like toothpaste, shampoo and deodorant. Along with providing an excellent excuse to capture my students on film, it turned out to be a worthwhile, although definitely challenging group assignment. The students needed a lot of input and help, but after two class periods many of them ended up with some very creative products and incredibly funny commercials.

Some of my favorite products included:

Olympic Sneakers - "One world. One shoe."

Sunshine Toothpaste - (A toothpaste that turns your teeth different colors) "Light up your life. Light up your teeth."

Magical Laundry Detergent - A detergent that can change your life. Literally. It could change you into a polar bear.

And:

Dark Child Sneakers - "Street ball is my job"

Amazing.

But my favorite came from the superstar trio: Victor, Olivia and Amy - who, whenever I headed their way to check in on their progress demurred, refusing to give me any details - it was going to be a surprise. During their secretive rehearsals they could barely hold it together. I couldn't help sneaking peeks as they pumped their fists, chanting quietly in unison "Let Me OK!" - before dissolving into hysterics.

I've uploaded their commercial for Let Me OK™ Deodorant below. Victor plays the stinky fly ("I feel lonely and ashamed"). Olivia plays God (who kills and eats poor Victor the fly - which was actually a delicious, seasonal cherry - we are gorging ourselves these days). And Amy sells it while struggling to keep a straight face. Olivia introduces the product at the beginning of the clip, and Victor's buzzing signals the commercial's start. I hope you find this as hilarious as I do, but chances are that this is only something that a teacher, or that teacher's mother could really love.



P.S. Victor is the aspiring rock star in Ethan's post about teaching.