Nǐ hǎo Suzhou

I can only blame the belated creation of this blog on how good the dumplings (пельеми) and chǎo miàn are (‘chow mein’). It certainly feels like I’ve lived here more than two weeks. I was given my own furnished apartment, rice cooker and chop sticks included, on the top floor of the staff building on school grounds. Driving through Shanghai, construction cranes are scattered about the city and on the horizon as far as the eye can see. While on a bridge, I counted 28 cranes, all building structures with at least 15 floors. Suzhou, where I live, is aesthetically pleasing because although it seems just as much under construction as Shanghai, the development shares the city with large patches of green trees. Initially, the humidity was unbearable but it’s already acquiescing to fall.

Classes started just after that weekend. I teach about 20 lessons a week, 2nd graders and 10th graders. And yes, WTF is the deal with how spaced out those are? I had no say in choosing my classes, but así es la vida. Before I arrived, some told me Chinese kids may not be as rambunctious because, supposedly, they take their schooling far more seriously than Western kids: bullshit. Many are bright, but I have the spawn of Satan in at least five of my classes. The most remarkable difference I noticed is that the high school students are not nearly as awkward as those back home.

I always look forward to teaching my 10th graders because they affectionately poke fun at each other during class. Some take their English names more seriously than others. One girl’s name is Phantom and several boys insisted their names were Potato, Loofy and Big.

The 2nd graders, on the other hand, are responsible for my insomnia and sudden weight loss. Exaggerations aside, 90% of the time they’re lovely children who quarrel over hugging me and holding my hand, but when it’s a bad lesson, it’s awful. Luckily, it’s only happened a couple times, and it occurred right after lunch when they’re aching to take a “nappy-nap,” or during the last period, when they’d been in their 8th hour of learning that day.

As for my Mandarin, I have a tendency to learn verbs more quickly than nouns, so shopping, especially looking for a particular item, is a Las Vegas show production. I went hunting for an electric tea kettle and found myself staring at a selection in an electronics store. An employee started talking to me (ahem, at me) in Mandarin and my instincts produced: Nǐ yǒu (point at kettle) um...... (point at the price tag) xià? Translation: You have (point at kettle) um.... (point at the price tag) low? That was early in the game. I’ve since found a language buddy, a Chinese teacher, with whom I exchange English tips for Mandarin lessons. Earlier today I was able to explain to the taxi driver who everybody was in the car and how we know each other.

I’ll try to keep these entries short (the future ones will be shorter) because I know these things become taxing to follow. The internet in my building is down right now and most likely will not be up for another two weeks, so returning a messages may take a couple days.

Que esten bien. До побачення :)