Yesterday I was riding the bus when a character on a sign caught my eye. Can you guess what it was? Yup, it was biang, the most complicated (and most awesome) Chinese character! It is a type of noodle. I yelled for the bus to stop and went to investigate. I was really full, but I ordered the Biang Biang noodles to go. I went back to our dorm and gave them to a friend (he teaches Chinese in Florida). He says they were really really good!
This past weekend my program took us on an overnight fieldtrip to Cuan Di Xia, a small village 2-3 hours from Beijing. It is on the side of a mountain, and is special because every house in the village is a traditional courtyard house (the different rooms of the house are built around a central courtyard that serves as a private yard for the house. Here is a web site about Cuan Di Xia:
http://baike.baidu.com/view/509635.htm?fr=Aladdin I really enjoyed the trip. The weather was very hot (it has been in the 100's here!) but it was nice to get out of the city. We hiked up a lot of small mountains and visited the temples in te village. The courtyard hotel we stayed in didn't have separate beds, but HUGE beds called Kang (炕) that are made out of brick with thin mattresses on top of them. In the winter they can light a fire under the kang to heat up the brick and make the bed toasty-warm. The kangs we slept on had sleeping spaces for 3-6 people, so it was kind of like a sleepover. My classmates and I stayed up late that night, talking and playing different games (including some language games can teach you guys in class). I'm back in Beijing now. Tomorrow starts our last week of classes. Tomorrow I have to give a 5 minute speech about teaching Chinese (I picked project based learning as my topic) and have to memorize my talk. I have it pretty much memorized, but it is difficult to speak at a natural pace and still manage to get all of the tones right! Hopefully I will make it through this week. The last week of the program they are taking us to Pingyao, which I am very excited about! http://www.chinatourguide.com/pingyao/pingyao_ancient_city.html http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/812 Hi guys! I have just finished my 3rd week of classes! It has been a busy week here for sure! This week I was assigned to a small group that had to lead an hour and a half discussion on using multi-media in the classroom (video, audio, websites, etc.) and today I had a big teaching demonstration (I had to pretend to teach a class). I learned a lot, but it was a lot of work. Also, we still had all of our regular language classes. The first few weeks I got all in the 90's on my quizzes, but this week I was so busy working on projects that I got one score in the 70's. Plus, no retakes. :( Today during the teaching demonstrations my classmates did a great job at only speaking Chinese to their students. This is something I really want to work on, so it was good to see how they did it.
This week during my off time (not much) I went to a clothing market near the Beijing Zoo. There are about 5 buildings in the market, and each one has a bunch of little stalls that sell clothes. Some were really expensive, but others were really cheap ($1 dresses, etc.). I didn't buy anything this time, but I want to go back again. Also, I found fun little store that sells lots of little beads and stickers and trinkets, so I will go back there to buy things for my prize box. Tonight I am going to see an acrobatic show! I hope you guys are having fun! Did you know that many Chinese smart phones' camera application comes with filters that people use to make their eyes look bigger, their faces less round, and their skin look paler! My sister-in-law uses it on any photo she takes of herself. It kind of makes me sad. You don't have to be pale with a skinny face and big eyes to be beautiful! I wish the people using those apps would be happy with who they are naturally! Chinese cell phones also have apps that make it look like you are wearing makeup. What do you guys think about all this?
I can' believe it has been about a week since I last posted! I really do want to be updating this journal more. Here's what I've been up to since my last post:
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AboutI am a 6-8th grade Mandarin teacher in the U.S.A. These are my China adventures! Archives
August 2015
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