Oh Goodness - The "Full Moon" and other adventures

We did not hear from Calissa for a couple of weeks and got a little concerned when there was an earthquake and we STILL did not hear from her. She is fine...just busy!

This is her latest chapter in the great China adventure.

Hello! I just wanted to let you know that I’m alive- that earthquake wasn’t very close, and we weren’t there that day. We are all alive, reasonably healthy, and getting enough food (water, on the other hand…). Okay. Now, for some awesome updates on my life and a reply to your letter, Mom!
I’m okay, and I am most certainly relishing those chocolate treats you sent- in fact, they are in part responsible for my presently optimistic attitude! Mm, mm, good… Those allergy tablets got here, and they did indeed help my running nose and glassy eyes.

How are the kids? Well, we have a few of every kind: some shy ones who don’t talk very much or loudly, the goofy ones who want attention, the kids who are smarter than we are, the kids who delight in causing trouble, the enthusiastic ones who aren’t as skilled but still try. And then there are the apathetic ones, who make us giggle because they are just so cute with their moody faces while everyone else is hopping around with excitement. Are they learning? Yes. Faster than we are learning Chinese, at any rate. I’m very much enjoying teaching now, especially now that I’ve gotten the hang of it somewhat. As for the inspection…ILP decided to put it off for a week, which is absolutely mean considering the fiendishly busy days we’ve had trying to get it all ready! Everyone is slightly peeved that we have to do a few things over again, but we’re relieved that most of the training and paperwork got mauled through before they come. The new date for inspection is this Wednesday, and we’ve been given very special instructions by Laura- be enthusiastic, be on time, and don’t complain!

On another note, the Chinese teachers (perhaps possessing the ancient art of telepathy, or maybe just possessing excellent observational skills) decided that we worked too hard and were spending too much time with each other- so they took us out to a coffee house and dinner, their treat. We left at 12 and didn’t get back until 8:45, which felt absurdly long upon reaching the dorms, but felt heavenly in light of our recent…exertions. We took a bus to downtown Changzhou, and were escorted by three peppy teachers and King (not peppy: we get stressed, we stress him, we stress out about stressing him…vicious cycle) to this huge, luxurious, beautiful building with a receptionist and elevators. We went to the fourth floor, where we had our reservations for the day, and were immediately sent to a lovely open booth with deep couches and teak tables. A waitress came over with a large tray, and began setting down tiny plates with various treats and snacks- some familiar, like those trumpet-shaped cracker things, and others, like the wheel-looking things that tasted like frosting and peanut butter, unfamiliar. We snacked politely, and made vague conversation while we took in the only relaxed atmosphere in over a week. A few minutes later, she came back with frothy milk drinks that tasted, and probably were, like melted ice cream and water. It was so good to have dairy again! We sucked down those milk drinks within minutes, and to our surprise and delight, our best friend the waitress returned with more! Those too disappeared in a trice, and we relaxed, beginning to disarm our multitudinous personal explosive tempers, and simply enjoy the company and sights. With snacks coming every fifteen minutes, and those ice cream drinks, we were more than satisfied with sitting back and doing absolutely nothing but munch and dazedly loll, but our hosts had other plans. They wanted us to play cards with them, so we corralled a random child’s Harry Potter Uno and had a few rounds, during which actual ice cream was served in tiny bowls. I had the red bean and taro, and both made me very happy. Let’s get ice cream when I get back, okay? ;) After the Uno fest, we checked the time (3 pm) and chatted. Some slept, possibly for the first time in a while. Others, like myself, learned and experienced the joy that is tapioca milk tea and Golf (the card game) in a nice atmosphere. The milk tea was pink boiled milk with blue tapioca balls at the bottom that you sucked up through a huge straw, and was delicious. I am also a terrible Golfer, and won the title of worst player with a score of 139 points after four rounds (the winner had 13). Well, I have no poker face, so that’s alright. We stayed and snacked until five. Most of us by that time had relaxed to such an extent that we were once more on polite speaking terms with each other and the world in general, and were ready to go back to the dorms to finish the experience with good, cleansing sleep. Our Chinese teacher friends, however, were not finished with the day- they took us to a small, Western-ish buffet where we were able to consume with difficulty a little more food of the dairy and familiar variety, during which we talked and joked and looked discreetly at our watches. After an hour or two, we began making light noise about sleeping off the tremendous perpetual meal we had consumed, and the teachers genially let us return. That was a good day…

Saturday, they took us to a mountain to climb it. We had ratcheted up our stress levels again, and many of us were eager to get in some excellent cardio and relief by roughing it through the wilderness for a few hours, but as it turns out, Chinese mountain climbing is a very different thing from American mountain climbing. The mountain was a hill with a colossal philosopher’s statue on it, and the path was nor precisely hiking grade, more like random-jaunt-with-an-elderly-person-through-the-bamboo grade. It was nice, but ultimately more interesting as a post card. I did enjoy the cave, though! It was really cool to go through a cave and explore a bit, and the exit was a boat ride, so that made my day. Afterwards, we had a nice traditional Chinese lunch (duck tastes awesome), and went to a cute amusement park. I got to ride a giant Ferris wheel that took a full fifteen minutes to make a revolution, and got my picture taken by four different groups of teenagers. LOL. I was a tourist attraction! It’s true, you don’t get many foreigners in this part of China.

Oh! I just remembered a funny thing that happened this week- remember how you asked about the kids, and if they were learning? Um, I know a few who are having a bit too much fun in our classes. Plato, one of the bigger boys (9, not 8), is a bit of a troublemaker, and bullies some of the smaller boys around. Well, one day when we were relaxing after gym (my favorite class to teach), I noticed that Plato was off by himself and not participating in our post-game discussion. I asked him, “Plato? Would you come sit down, please? What did you learn?” Plato proceeded to do something shocking. He plopped down beside me, rattled something off in Chinese, and then displayed a full, brown moon to the entire class, not two feet from my face. I looked at that bottom, felt my control of the class slip, and wondered, How am I supposed to save this? I then got a flash of inspiration. I turned to the class and said emphatically and enthusiastically, “Plato mooned me! What did Plato do? Plato mooned me! Everyone say, ‘Plato mooned you!’ Who did he moon?” “Plato moon Teacher Calissa!” “Good!” I then taught the class that mooning is not polite, and the lesson continued. I’m glad he didn’t go full Monty, I don’t know how I’d have salvaged that…“Everyone say, ‘Plato is a nudist-’”

On a different note, I feel like I should ask after my cough. You remember when I got H1N1 and had to stay in the country longer? Well, I got better in almost every way, and feel excellent, but I never completely lost the cough. I thought it was another allergy symptom, but those have gone away, and this hasn’t. I hear and feel something rattling around in there still, and it bugs me because I can’t understand why I’ve still got that. I can breathe very well since it seems to be at the bottom of my lungs rather than the top, and I only notice occasionally or when I’m horizontal, but it’s still weird. On the other hand, I haven’t caught anything like the flu (which wiped out half our number for a week), or a severe cold (which took out four for two weeks), or strep (which afflicts two of us right now). I feel so bad for the kids because we get sick so frequently, but it’s probably the kids who are giving us the illnesses, so I’m not remorseful for long.
Some fun stuff I’ve noticed about China this week is table manners. It’s socially acceptable, and even the norm, to spit out food and put it beside your plate, on the table. This means that at a large meal, everyone will have a little pile of bones, gristle, and whatever else glommed together on the tablecloth. Yuck. I still haven’t gotten the hang of this yet, and persist in hiding such tidbits in a napkin which I then secrete in the shadow of my cup. It earns me some interested looks, but I’m okay with that. Another thing is slurping. Everyone, from the teachers to the students, does this. And the snorting, then spitting? Yep, that too! 
And lastly, what I’d like in that final package…hm. I’d like pictures of you guys, and whatever else you’d like to send is fine. <3
I love you! Calissa
PS- Good luck with the worm composting!