It’s hard to believe that I’m back in China, and
somehow it’s still very exciting.
Following the eight-day teacher workweek I headed to the states while
the rest of China celebrated the Spring Festival. Most of my foreign friends that stayed in
China said that it was like a ghost town around University campuses. Many of these friends either traveled
throughout the country or visited the homes of Chinese friends. Chinese families got together and shared enormous
meals. It is not uncommon for people to
enjoy heavy meals every day of the 15-day festival.
My break was divided among family and friends across
the USA. I am blessed to have spent so
much time with so many wonderful people.
As much I’d love to be back in sunny Miami rather than cold, wet Wuhan,
there is something promising about this return.
Not only is over half of my work finished but also the weather should
only get warmer from now on.
The flight back with Cathay Pacific was ten times
better than my first trip to China and I was able to adjust my sleeping schedule
more easily after this flight. Work
began immediately following my arrival.
Each evening offered the chance to catch up with friends. A few of my closest friends are moving this
semester, but not before sharing a final farewell. The ninth floor of CCNU’s foreign expert
building is now mine for the taking, (at least until another foreigner moves
into the newly emptied apartments).
My news of China usually comes to me through my
translator or from watching the news on the metro TV screens. China was very
proud of their Olympic gold medal speed skater.
The video of the Korean skater falling and the Chinese skater gliding to
the finish was on repeat for a week. Due
to the over-coverage of speed skating and curling, it was hard to catch the
hockey games. One bar/restaurant aired
the games at 1 AM. I hope the rest of the world enjoyed the winter Olympics.
The nasty weather presents the opportunity to relax
indoors and continue cleaning/sorting through the myriad of object that I’ve
collected in the past 6 months.
Transient friends have left many bottles of cooking oil, towels,
blankets, and several snack items. One cannot live on moon pies and sunflower
oil alone, but these things provide a bit of comfort after a long day at the
kindergarten.
Speaking of school, I believe that the teachers are
on board with understanding vertebrates.
It was difficult for many teachers to distinguish amphibians from
reptiles. We talked about the life cycle
of a frog, (going from egg to tadpole to frog), but they seemed unaware to the
idea of newts, salamanders, caecilians, etc.
These animals are often found cooked on expensive plates at Chinese
celebrations, but most kindergarten teachers know little about them. One teacher told me that there was a mistake
with the caecilian. She strongly
believed that it was a worm. We had to
have a group discussion about not only these animals, but what makes some
animals fit into one of the five classes of vertebrates. Then another can of worms was opened: understanding invertebrates.
It seems that a trip to the zoo will be made within
this month. Hopefully many teachers will
be able to join this outing. Some
teachers have mentioned that they never before studied such biological
information. How wonderful that they now
have the opportunity!
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