Stick and I really need a router…. right now only one of us can be on the internet at a time so we can’t play WoW together. Also he can’t play WoW very much because I am always blogging or doing ChinesePod! Poor boy. Friday night we made do with the WarCraft card game.
WarCraft Cards
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 404, chinese, chinesepod, e3, Stick, WarCraft, World of WarCraft, WoW
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Meg Autonomous Region
When I said we’d be eating at the beef-noodle cafe again tonight, what I actually meant was that Stick and I would be getting some brie, Ritz crackers and Snickers bars! There’s a grocery just a few blocks away that stocks all three, and I can’t overstate how wonderful Western food can be. And we watched some of Season 3 Lost. My Chinese is improving every day, but it was nice to have an evening in the Meg Autonomous Region.
Posted in New York City
Tagged chinese, Chinese life, e3, LOST, New York City, Stick, Western food
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Peter Pan With Chinese Characteristics
Today I had my first lesson with my gifted kids. This was sprung on me in a typically Chinese fashion, it was once mentioned in passing that I’d be team-teaching English club with Christina. When I got the details a few hours before the class would begin, I found out there were actually 2 sections of the same class, and then one of the TAs asked me what I’d be doing for my class play. Class play? Oh yes, I’m meant to be writing one about some “traditional American folktales.”
Um.
The whole thing went a lot better than my last school surprise, because if there’s one thing I love doing with little kids, it’s public humiliation skits! We played some games today, because I had nothing prepared, not being told that I was meant to writing a school play. It went very well, the kids are pretty good at English. Poor Christina isn’t accustomed to the last-minute-ness of Chinese schools, so the whole thing was kind of an ordeal for her. The kids are a dream, though, very creative and excited. My assignment for Monday is convincing the rest of the English department that Peter Pan is a traditional American folktale.
Posted in Raleigh
Tagged chinese, Chinese schools, Christina, Eric, games, Raleigh, teaching, teaching wee ones, with Chinese characteristics
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Wee Ones
At our “meeting” the other day it was decided that the foreign teachers should observe our Chinese counterparts’ classes. This is the kind of edict that makes me wonder if certain people in our school have ever seen children. So I went to my TA’s class yesterday, and obviously, I caused a major disruption and the little kids were all over me! When I came in, they ran over and showed me what they were doing in their other textbooks, and what they drew in their notebooks, and one girl gave me a drawing she made, and so forth, but the lesson was kind of a wreck because the little ones kept turning around in their seats to wave and smile at me.
Beef Noodle Shop
Last night we went to a little restaurant a few blocks from the school. From the Arabic on the sign, and the lack of pork on the menu, it’s probably a Muslim place. (This is always reassuring to me because they tend to have really clean kitchens, something that is not always part of the local-noodle-shop experience.)
Stick and I passed it during the day, and we brought Christina back there for dinner. At night, they set up those white plastic tables and chairs, and they have a keg. Yeah, a keg of cold beer. In China. Did I mention it was cold? We ordered three random styles of noodles. Mine was pretty good but as we sat there, we saw waiters bringing out other things that looked even better: other noodles, and fried rice, and peanuts, and some kind of kebabs. We’ll probably be back tonight or tomorrow — I’d say it’s to try some of the other dishes, but it’s really for the beer.
Posted in New York City
Tagged China, Chinese life, Christina, e3, New York City, noodles, random, Stick
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Stranglethorn Vale
New WoW article on Stranglethorn Vale is up on Azeroth World News, in case you’re getting sick of me talking about China all the time.
Talk Like A Pirate… Everyday
So my wonderful friend Alison pointed out that September 19th is International Talk Like A Pirate Day.
Of course I plan to participate, but talking like a pirate is totally redundant in Beijing. Beijingers use all the Rs that Mass folks leave out. “Where?” is zai nali outside Beijing, but zai nRRR in Beijing. Our entrance is Xi men for non-Beijingren, but Xi muRRR to every cabbie who’s brought us home.
If the secret to good Chinese is to speak faster and mumble more, the secret to the Beijing accent is talking like a pirate.
Don’t Drink And Hop?
Stick’s already gone to bed, but I just have to share this picture. It was on a bulletin board at school with a lot of drawings of training athletes and Olympic mascots. I’m still not sure what the drunken bunny has to do with the Olympics, but I won’t be forgetting the character for booze anytime soon.
