We Keep Runnin' For The Thrill Of It

Friends and Lovers,

I know it has been a long time since I updated this. Sometimes a girl needs a lil’ privacy-but enough of that. Kanye is back to spewing his life all over the internet, so I might as well follow suit.

I have been up in arms keeping my students busy these past weeks-fighting the good fight for intelligence. I started a business creation unit with them, because let’s face it, these kids know consumption best, and the work they are doing is incredible. I keep my fingers crossed everyday that they will stay focused, and so far so good. Even my most notorious slackers are on board; once we got past the “No, you can’t sell weapons, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, or little girl’s underwear” portion of the project-they flew! Here are a few of my favourite businesses: “Lucky Fox Clothing” (selling fox fur clothes), “Uncle Sushi” (Helen’s), “Clown” (selling toothbrushes), “Will-‘O’-the-Wisp” (selling ships!), “Notable Common Work” (selling videos of famous people doing…yep-common work around the house or office). Initially, these were the projects that I thought students were creating just to mess with me-but no-they are actually entranced by their business planning. On a side-note we are also studying TOM’s Shoes as a business model, and we’ve had some cool conversations about the impact of businesses like TOMS in the world—I love hearing what they have to say about what they are reading—they are so impressed by TOMS.
Then again, there are also the days when they drive me insane and I just shake my head and moan, “Oh geez China,” which they think is the funniest thing ever. For example, while teaching this week, a blast of off key instruments and fire crackers overtook my lesson from outside the school windows. I could hardly hear myself. The kids barely reacted to it, but I looked out the window, and oh-yep, a processional for a dead person was just meandering through the streets. This went on for fifteen minutes, while I struggled to figure out how to teach over the noise (never did figure it out…). Ridiculous. Then we had a conversation about how crazy it is that firecrackers are constantly going off in the streets at all hours of the day and night for some celebration or another, one student explained it as, “Well teacher, we are just happy people, we just celebrate with noises whenever our hearts are happy.” Sounds like a decent life mentality to me, might even chalk that down as a Lifestyle Goldmine, but really, who the H is happy at 5:30am every Thursday??? Not me! China! I need sleep! Especially because my brain is shrinking each time I mark a writing assignment. No really-I’m completely serious. Last week, there was so much Chinglish in their writing that I couldn’t even identify a full sentence anymore! I told this to my desk-mate, Jess, and her response was “trust me, nothing they write is a full sentence.” I was so dizzy after marking that I nearly threw up. Some assignments my kids just give ‘er and they do an awesome job and really work hard to do everything perfectly; other days, I swear they just spit on the paper and hand it in, “Uuh…thanks Dragon…”

I’ve also been a part of a political battle between the Chinese administration and the Canadian administration at the school. This whole business unit involves kids actually speaking in class, moving desks around into groups of two, and using their laptops to type assignments and design their logos (typical classroom stuff-right?) NO! Not right! Not in CHINA! In Chinese classrooms, kids sit at the same desk all day, they have twenty books piled high on their desk, they write in little notebooks with fine tipped pens, and they stand when they respond to your question. The Canadian classes look wildly different-like-they actually look like chaos by comparison. Therefore, the Chinese admin freaks out and is constantly complaining to our Canadian principal (a complete darling), about EVERYTHING we do. It’s an annoyance, but they can’t do anything to us because they don’t have any power over us-it’s just crappy because the wall grows higher and higher between us. Anyway, the business unit is blowing their minds because there are 9 grade 11 classes doing this and because we can’t all fit in the library to use their 1940’s computers, we all requested that students bring their laptops to class. We get so much more work done this way and I’m not constantly screeching, ‘No Ren-Ren, No QQ! ‘ (because there is no internet connection in the classes). The Chinese admin put out a request that laptops never be used in class because they are a ‘distraction.’ When I heard, I lost it. You can imagine. “Is this a joke???? What kind of 21st Century school doesn’t allow technology in the classroom? My students are NOT distracted, they are more focused than I have ever seen them-they actually do work in class and hand stuff in! They do revisions of their writing for the first time ever! They are learning how to TYPE in ENGLISH—because they have never been taught this before-and I am marking work with commas and periods all over the place! It’s a nightmare, but so good for them to be learning this! This school is in a time warp! If I can’t use laptops, I’m going to quit! I refuse to teach in a school that shuts down laptops in classrooms for senseless reasons. This is ludicrous!”
So yeah- I threw it out there. Was it a professional response-Uh-nope. Am I an overly zealous first year teacher with student advocacy dripping from my lips? Uh-yeah, clearly. It was okay though, my principal took me to her house and cooked me a grilled cheese sandwich and we talked politics. It was cute-like Sesame Street meets Bill Gates. There are new surprises on campus every day. I will do better at reporting them to you as they happen-ripe blogs are the best.

A Nightmare Before Christmas has also hit campus this week-I will try and post photos; though, photos do not do this place justice. I love that the school celebrates Christmas with the Canadian department, it is very considerate. Especially when you consider how far from home we all are and how comforting it is to see Christmas lights and decorated trees. HOWEVER—these decorations are outlandish and hilarious! I literally saw maintenance men dragging in browning Christmas trees the other day, and I stood and watched while they hucked Christmas tinsel and weird items onto the tree (only on one side of the tree too-I guess the backside doesn’t need to be adorned…). I don’t think they even lifted their heads from inside the decorations box, they just chose an item, reached behind them and threw it onto the tree. One of the trees was being blown over in the wind the other day as I was walking into the building with my kids and one student grabbed it and I told him he saved Christmas and he was a Christmas hero; his response was, “not really, teacher-that tree is so ugly!” Haha! The best part of Christmas on campus is the manger scene! Oh man….I have to take a photo of that. Poor Santa Clause is all tuckered out, so he is standing outside the manger (with nothing inside of it-no baby Jesus-not even a baby Mao!!), knocking on the wood, obviously trying to get in. Poor Rudolf is just chllin’ outside in the snow-looking haggard. The whole thing looks so weird-it kills me (by the way, my expression, “you’re killing me” coined from the Sandlot long ago-is making waves with my students-they lose it every time I tell a student he/she is killing me. They also love, “uh huh.” Heehee! “Zark! Take those earphones out of your ears-this is not music class-and you will not learn English with those things in your head right now-you’re killing me!” “Uh huh, teacher, uh huh!”).
Downtown Beijing brings Christmas spirit the old fashioned way-feels like home. Starbucks is spewing Christmas out the door as usual, and the stores play Christmas carols. People are always shopping as if in frenzy here, but it feels more Christmas-y somehow. For Christmas weekend, we get Christmas Eve off, so Bre, Maggie and I have booked into a fancy hotel (courtesy of our parents’ for Christmas-thanks Mum and Terry!), and we will dine, dance, and feel divine! Our itinerary includes sleeping in each day, going to the spa, buying a random gift for each other at Yashow market and exchanging on Christmas morning, eating Sunday brunch, having Christmas dinner at a nice restaurant, seeing Swan Lake, ice skating at a plaza, and hitting Candy Village (it’s a small village made entirely by candy-this is a childhood dream of mine-and it exists in Beijing!) I think it will be a great weekend and we are determined to not comment on how much we miss being home. It’s my first Christmas away from home and I am going to make it something memorable!
I do, however, hope for snowfall everyday. You know when you look at a dark grey sky at home, and the air has a bite to it, and everything is quiet; you think, it’s going to snow. Well, Beijing has those same effects, but, the grey sky is pollution, and that burning inside your chest and your black boogers are signs that you are dying faster here than you would in Canada. Really. So, though I may sound crazy to all the Canucks living in 10 ft of snow right now at -40, I still hope for snowfall everyday.
What else can I tell you…oh yes! We’ve booked our one-month holiday to Thailand! I am really excited to go back there! I will say that I am disappointed that my Nepal and Indonesia plans fell through, but I guess this means that I’ll have to come back to the Orient again one day…can’t get enough. I am going with Bre and her friend Jenks, and Maggie. We are planning to stay in Ko Tao, Ko Phan’ang (where The Beach was filmed), and Ko Phi Phi-but that could all change on a dime. We’ve made some British friends out here and they will be joining for a week as well, so we have quite the crew hitting Thailand. I just want to get out on a scooter and zip around the island, climb to the top of a waterfall, and see a cool spider. I don’t ask for much…okay-maybe a massage and a pedicure too. Okay, enough!
I think that is all I have to report, friends. I’m happier than ever out here-I have finally settled down and I’m embracing Beijing life with arms open, I’m taking risks and swooning. I’m more accepting of circumstances and grey areas…I just feel free. For the first time, I go into situations and conversations and remind myself to ‘roll with the punches,’ and I do. I drop expectations and I never feel obligated to do more than wake up and get out of bed. I feel different than before, and I wish this Michelle had been around years ago.
I’ll write again (sooner this time), and I hope everyone is safe and peaceful as they plow through Christmas season back home.

Don’t kid yourself, I miss you guys and girls terribly.
Shalom,
xox

PS PLAYLIST (on repeat):
*Walking On A Dream-Empire of the Sun
*When We Were Young- The Killers
*Power, Monster, All of the Lights- Kanyeezy and others
*Get Some-Lykke Li
*A Thread Cut With A Carving Knife-Stars
*Tell 'Em, Kids-Sleigh Bells
*Where's Your Dirty Mind- Avi Buffalo
*Sunday-Bloc Party
*Radioactive-Kings of Leon