Sports Meeting!! 加油!!

I feel like Sports Meeting in at HNU is like sunshine in March in Tonawanda or a unicorn—this imaginary promise that no one believes in anymore. Sports Meeting (which is basically a wannabe Olympics for the students of HNU) was supposed to happen for us October 23-25. It was delayed twice, pushing it from 10/23-25 to 10/30-11/1 (which would have given me Halloween off) and then again to 11/13-15 (which totally screwed up my midterm schedule). There was talk of the meeting just being cancelled with the threat of bad weather coming from the typhoon that hit the Philippines last week. But it seemed that good fortune decided to throw us a bone and we finally had our Sports Meeting (it is actually happening right outside my window now--加油!!)

So before the Sports Meeting can officially start, the opening ceremony must take place. I couldn’t help but think about the Olympics the whole time—yes the games and competitions are important (I personally LOVE the Olympics and I’m a bit sad I’ll be missing some of them during Spring Festival… But I think I’ll get over it!!) but so much went into the opening ceremony. People were dressed up, there were performances, dances, music, Party members, and a full on parade.

 

Photos stolen from DH

Now the procession/parade for the opening ceremony is made up of all the different schools within Hangzhou Normal University. You have the School of Medicine, the School of Physical Education, the International School, and (of course) the School of Foreign Languages. It was required that we foreign teachers take part in the opening ceremony parade (and I was FINE with that if it meant not having to wake up at 5am to go to Xiasha campus!).

Surrounded by my students, Gio, Adam, and I made our way to the new stadium. We got little Chinese flags (my first one!!) and annoying hand clapper noise makers (I swear, you give these to 60 year old Chinese men and they will be entertained for the next hour, clapping away and laughing).

 

 Being the ever important leader of the foreign English teachers (and probably because he is the tallest one in the whole school), Adam was, once again, the flag bearer for the School of Foreign Languages. With a student carrying our school’s sign, Adam followed behind her with the flag. It was then the row of “super-duper important people”—the Party member, dean, assistant dean, secretary, and our boss. And behind that row was the foreign teachers which was made up of just me and Gio.

It was cool walking into the stadium for the first time. We’ve watched them build this thing for almost three months now; we’ve walked around it almost every day to go into town to get dinner so it was nice to know that A). they had finally finished it and B). it actually looked really nice.

We marched along the track to the sound of our students cheering and banging their little noisemakers together. It was a bit weird having to walk past the section where the Party members were sitting and watching us (nothing like being one of the only capitalists in the whole arena, eh?). 

Our students who were dressed up as cheerleaders and little Michael Jacksons with their fedoras performed a small dance routine (my precious babies!!) and then we continued on in our march.

We were one of the last groups to go so we didn’t have to stand around and wait too long for the other four or five schools to go by. We stood in the field as they walked past us, as a Party member gave a speech, and as they played the national anthem, raising the Chinese flag. I found myself wondering if anyone ever sings the Chinese national anthem. Whenever you’re at a sporting event in America, someone will sing the anthem and usually you get people singing along, hooting and hollering at certain points (“O’er the land of the free” pops to mind instantly at almost every Sabres or Bandits game). At this sports meeting, there was no singing (or even humming) along, no cheering, and no clapping at the end. It was very serious and very somber. Just an observation, I suppose.

After the official procession, all of the faculty members (Chinese faculty members I should say) went out onto the field to perform taichi (though I have since been informed that it is not taichi but something a bit different. It has similar movements, and is still fluid, peaceful, and still looks like waterbending… but no, it is not taichi). Immediately following that, the faculty ran (legit ran) off the field as the students ran onto the field, wearing shorts, tank tops (it was cold!), jeans, and other nontraditional clothes and performed a bunch of different routines (most of them reflecting hip hop). I loved seeing the difference between the two performances--old VS. new.

Taichi

Hip hop

 I am relieved that we finally got our Sports Meeting. If I’m honest, it is mostly because I wanted to only have to work one day this week. But I do enjoy doing things like this with the school. I like seeing my students outside of the classroom and being able to support them. First it was the English Host Competition last week and this week it was the Sports Meeting. With the semester coming to an end (only four more weeks until I start up finals!), I’m glad to finally be getting out of the classroom and out onto the university to be with my students.

Happy Sports Meeting!

Until Next Time,

Amanda

PS- Adam pointed out to me the other day that we only have two weeks until Thanksgiving… WHERE DID THE SEMESTER GO?!?

PPS- NaNoWriMo is going swimmingly and you can keep an eye on my status here.

PPPS- Plans for Spring Festival are falling into place… Can anyone say, “Hello, Nepal!”?!?!

English Host Competition

Students and schools in China are very fond of competitions. Just this past week there was a translation competition, a career competition, an English singing competition, and a host competition. For a country who likes everyone to be the same and equal in almost all aspects of life, they certainly like pushing their kids to work as hard as they can to be the best of the best, beat everyone else around them, and win.

Last week, one of my students asked me if I was available to judge the English Host Competition next Friday (last night). I had heard about this competition and read about it on Olivia's blog (right here!!) so I was happy to agree to it. They needed two foreign teachers to be the judges so it was decided that Adam and I would be the judges (I kind of feel that, based off of the popularity of us together, it was more of a publicity stunt). So we put on our best Simon Cowell faces and prepared ourselves for a night of entertainment.

The competition had thirteen people participating, each of them had some kind of performance or presentation. Some pretended to be news anchors or TV personnel while others made up their own award show or travel shows (those were very popular). Some of the performances were excellent--one student presented the Academy Awards and was both the host and the Oscar winners where he imitated actual celebrities (complete with slightly offensive accents)--and others were a bit difficult to sit through--especially when they had to read their script off of a piece of paper :-/

Round One was their presentations. They could be on any topic and they were scored on things such as pronunciation, stage presence, fluency, timing, the actual content of their presentation, and then the Q&A from the judges. I won't lie--it was a bit intimidating knowing that I had to come up with questions based specifically on their presentation and word it in a way that they could understand and answer (luckily there was a Chinese professor who was one of the other judges [four of us altogether] and he always had something to say). They took all of our scores from round one and they decided the eight competitors that would go onto round two.

Two of my favorites--Academy Awards and Miss World Contest

Round Two was impressive to me. It was all about improv. They were given a certain scenario like hosting a TV or music show or reporting the news and things would go wrong--the lights would go out, the singer would be late, people would walk in front of them or bump into them--and it was up to them to keep going. I have to say, I would not have been able to do this... and English is my first language! Improv and thinking on your toes is extremely difficult--especially on stage in front of an audience, when you are being watched and judged, in your second (and sometimes third) language. 

One of the great improv groups interviewing a crazy actor

At one point during the improv section, two of the students were hosting a concert but the singer was late! So what do they do? PSH! Pull Adam up on stage with them!! To fill the time before the singer arrived, they somehow convinced Adam to sing a song for them... What song did he choose, you ask? Why the most American song you could think of: Take Me Out to the Ballgame. I was dying of laughter but I did manage to support him and sing along near the end.

 [If you are wondering, YES I did get a video of it... however, I am choosing to not disclose it as of right now. Can anyone say blackmail?!?]

 In the end, six winners were chosen. After the judges deliberated and offered our final thoughts on the competition (nothing but positive things to say, of course!), we chose 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place, most creative, best pronunciation, and most entertaining. We had winners who presented on Thailand and India,  Best Roommate Awards, The Academy Awards, and the Miss World Competition. I really think that everyone did a very good job--it can be scary standing up in front of an audience and perform... and even scarier if it isn't in your native language! It was my first time working with the students outside of the classroom and my first public appearance at a school function (since we still haven't had the Sports Meeting and the current typhoon down south is making that look like a nonentity still) and I am really glad that I did it.

I think that last night was the first time that I really felt like a teacher on the campus. Of course I've been teaching my classes for almost 10 weeks now and we are right in the middle of mid-terms. But there was something about being asked to watch the students and judge them that... I don't know... made me feel way more grown up than anything else that I've done in China! Kind of silly when you think about it but I really enjoyed it and I hope I get to do it again in the future.

Until Next Time,
Amanda

PS- As thanks for taking the time out to attend the competition (on a Friday mind you!), the students bought all the judges gifts. I've been warned that the gifts can be a bit random and bizarre... I got a glass shoe filled with pickled vegetables... LOVE IT.

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween is one of those crazy holidays that I feel is very American. Of course the roots come from Samhain in Britain and we have similar festivals like the Day of the Dead in Mexico but Jack-o-Lanterns, trick or treating, costumes, candy corn, bobbing for apples, and candy in the shape of eye balls and fingers is strange enough to only be found in America (I could be wrong and if I am, please let me know! I don't want to be ignorant of this)!

For those of you who know me, Fall is the most wonderful time of the year and Halloween is the greatest day on the calendar. Today is Halloween, the most beautiful and spooky of holidays and while I don't have any plans to go to a Halloween party or dress up or go trick or treating (sad face), I did manage to have a pretty eventful Halloween season (sans pumpkin carving).

First off, my students were bombarded with Halloween, candy, games, and movies. I wanted to introduce them to the holiday; they had all mentioned that they enjoyed learning more about American culture, food, festivals, and holidays so clearly I went with my favorite holiday.

Last week, we learned all about the history of Halloween (Samhain VS. All Hallow's Eve). I brought candy in for them. I showed them movie clips from The Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus. We looked at costumes, talked about what we would dress up as (the best answer was, "A cake!") and I taught them different words associated with the holiday (like "Boo!" and "Jack-o-Lantern") and we played BINGO.

This week, we exchanged scary stories. So I told them a few scary stories, acted them out, and tried to scare them. Then, I broke them up into groups, gave them 15 minutes to come up with a scary story, and they had to perform it for the rest of the class. These kids are SICK! They came up with so freaky stories (mostly having to do with either late night bus rides or mirrors). I think they really enjoyed it and it got them talking.

Now you might be thinking to yourself, "Amanda! Teaching a class on Halloween and telling a few scary stories cannot be all that you did to celebrate Halloween!" And I would tell you that you are right!

Luckily, I have been blessed with finding a place snuggled in among the other foreigners here and we celebrated the holiday last weekend with one another and many of our Chinese friends and even some of our students.

Sadly, when packing to come over to China, I did not think that I would be attending a Halloween party so I did not bring anything with me that might help me with a costume. And so, my costume was slightly on the lame side. I wore all white (white dress, white tights, white boots, and a white bow in my hair) and I wrote lies along my arms and chest and I went as a Little White Lie. It would have to do. Some of the other foreigners came up with some awesome ideas--we had a Twister board, a chef, a paintbrush, Paul Bunyan (lumberjack extraordinaire), and even good ol' Honest Abe Lincoln.

This party was a hit filled with tons of food (CANDY CORN!!) and even more guests (I never though I would think that DH's apartment needed to be bigger)! We had a costume fashion show, taught the students about bobbing for apples (which ended up being REALLY popular), there were costume photo shoots, and we played tons of games (the good classics like Ghosts in the Graveyard, Red Rover, an egg toss, and mummy races).

 Bobbing for apples and toilet paper mummy races

Red Rover!

Egg toss!

 It was so much fun taking these customs and games that you grew up playing and sharing them with people who have never even thought of these things before. I think Halloween is so ingrained into our society: almost every child dresses up for Halloween, attends a party (even if it is just at school), and goes trick or treating. I always took the holiday for granted and so to have to take something that I love so much and share it with people who have never done these things or heard of these things before made me look at it in a different way and it definitely helped me appreciate my (crazy) culture even more.

And, of course, Adam and I had our own small Halloween celebration complete with me dressing up as Buzz Lightyear, wandering along Cangqian street, street food, a bag of chocolate (and peanut butter!!) Halloween candy, and a viewing of The Shining (before I pathetically fell asleep).

One of our favorite things to do ♥

Boo!! Happy Halloween!!!

 So with classes coming to an end this week (my students this morning shouted, "Trick or treat!" as I walked into my first class this morning and a student poured candy ♥ ) and our Halloween costume party behind us, a few scary movies thrown in for fun, and a surprise bag of Halloween candy that I just found in my closet, I would say that the season of Halloween is coming to a close over here in the Middle Kingdom... Just in time for NaNoWriMo...

Until Next Time,
Amanda

PS- I officially filled my writing notebook yesterday (not good timing with November being tomorrow) and so Adam went out and bought me a new one. Behold the greatest Chinglish I have ever read: