Thursday, May 21, 2009

blogger denied

oh middle kingdom, why don't you like blogs? just wanted to let you all know that blogger/blogspot is blocked, making posting super convoluted and time-consuming.

so it'll be a bit quieter than usual in these parts. hope to post more soon (I already uploaded half of the korea pics too!).

Friday, May 15, 2009

wacky kids


Here are some pictures of my kids and their posters. Most of them are from an project I gave them where they had to create a new invention and then present it in TV commercial format. This is my new Japanese kids group: Yuna, Rin, Masaya, and Ikumi.

This was their invention, a mask that enhances the natural senses of the wearer. For being my newest students, they did a great job; they even made a real mask.

This one is from Helen, June, and Soohyun. They had a magic door that could take you anywhere in the world. Note the penguin interface. In a total coincidence, I saw Helen in a random bookstore when I was in Seoul. Then I visited her grandmother's museum. I'll give you the full details in the Korea post, but it was a kinda amazing experience.


Battleship Yamato from Chie, Takashi, JH, and Rex. Who's going to buy this, I asked them. Anyone! they responded. What about terrorists? Sure! We'll sell it to anyone!


My blog is doing that annoying thing again where the pictures won't post correctly, but this is the Lazy Chair from Andrew, Leo, Joyce, and Jenny. It has a speaker, tv, arms to help you do homework--the works.

A time travel clock (perhaps lifted from the Treehouse of Horror Simpsons episode I showed them a few days before).

This is from my Korean boys, and I still can't figure out what exactly it is. They tell me that it can turn into anything. "Anything?"
"Yes, it can turn into another Mr. Wong to teach us!"

Ah, the Nick Key. A key that will open any door.

Hayabusha, a hovering bike that you should not ride unless "you want to suicide yourself"
The Help Driving Robot, from Korean girls Betty, YeSeul, and Stella

Hmm, a strange-looking pen from what's left of the Japanese Triangle: Maki, Rika, with hong kong girl Judy added on.

This from another Jenny, a drawing bunny.


Actually from my ecology & evolution class. A poster from four Japanese girls depicting Darwin's theory.

JiYoon. He got a 96 despite bad handwriting.

Shone (he of "emission" fame). He did manage a 91.

Monday, May 11, 2009

School lunch and Joyce bread

I get some questions now and then about what school lunch is like. Also, remember Joyce? I mentioned awhile back about how she's always eating some kind of bread in my class. Well, here then, is a week's worth of lunch and Joyce bread. Enjoy.


The lunch line.

Monday
Sweet and sour (chicken?), random cooked vegetable, and eggplant. Doesn't look appetizing, but this is one of the better combinations. The sweet and sour chicken is usually heavily breaded and fried, but when compared to typical US takeout, it's actually solidly good. The eggplant is mushy MSG goodness. The greens? Pass.

Joyce bread: some kind of pre-packaged ham and cheese sandwich.


Tuesday
Ah, random balls, taro perhaps? Hard to tell, even with one in your mouth (that's what she said). The brownish stuff is curry chicken (cole's staple lunch choice), which is next to a celery pork mix. Eh.

Joyce bread: two, two tuna sandwhiches. tuna was a theme that week.
Wednesday
no lunch? Actually, I'm pretty sure that we got fed up that Wednesday and went to the nearby Shanghai South Station for lunch instead. If you are reading this and will be living on Baise Lu someday (first, really? are you sure? secondly, think it over...hard), the South Station will be your closest haven of edible food.

Joyce bread: different roll, but still the same tuna/corn/carrot filling.

now remember, Joyce is sneaking bites of this during class!

Thursday
Oh, finals chicken, why are you so good? A bit of history; during our finals last semester, we received actual chicken breasts (what no bits? no. bones? yes, this be china). and they were tender, and tasty, and amazing. From then on we dreamed of finals chicken. Occasionally we would be teased by finals chicken; we would see a few people with it, but by then it would be all gone, or they would bring it out after we had finished lunch (it would be for the next lunch period). Yet, on the rare rare lunch day, we would have finals chicken. This was such a day, and it was good. Try to ignore the clear tasteless soup and mushroom fiesta combo.


Joyce bread: more tuna, but on a different roll. the drink is chocolate soy milk. you would think that with all this bread that joyce would be a bit big, but she is a little Hong Kong girl.

Friday
One of the only things worth looking forward to. Cole is not a fan, but Friday soup is a bit hit with us foreign teachers. Like a sweet campbells tomato soup, with cabbage thrown in, Friday soup has a tangy zing with a ketchup bouquet. I like mine with a dollop of rice steeped within it. Next to that is the famous Shanghai pork dish that consists mostly of a thick layer of pure pork fat. Not bad, but I'm a bad Chinese person--I rip off the fat with my chopsticks. And, immediately adjacent to the pork is my favorite tofu dish. Basically spicy tofu. Oh, and some balls, what's a lunch without balls?


Joyce bread: not positive, but this is either filled with banana or pork. next to that is regular soy milk

And that's it for this post. Anyone up for a tuna sandwhich?

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Less than two months left

It's May. The last three days have been hot; in the 80s scraping 90, clear skies. It reminds me of when we arrived, not that long ago, but long enough. We were clueless and lost. I couldn't keep food down. Two slurps of noodles and that would be it. And it was hot.

Pretty soon it'll be over, and it'll be time to move on to our next (perhaps better [ok probably better]) city. Now I have a small inkling of what a teacher does, and a very good inkling of what a SHSID foreign teacher does (hmm, I won't go into it).

So, today I meant to write. I wanted to write about things (lessons?) learned, growing up, our changing bodies, etc., etc..., but really do I understand Shanghai or the people who come to Shanghai? Maybe, maybe not. There's a hardened China shell now, a protective layer against the common zaniness of your average day, but actual understanding is still hiding around a corner, asleep and ruffled.

So I meant to write, but instead I just went for a run in the dark. At 9:00pm on a Saturday night, the only other person on the track is a groundskeeper watering the hedges and smoking a cigerette. His eyes followed me around, and I avoided stepping on the length of the hose. It was too dark to see his features, but the glowing end of his cigerette occasionally grew brighter and dimmer. It was odd, and hard to tell if I was sleeping or not. When I finished, I passed him without waving or looking in his direction.

Here is a good point for an inappropriate anecdote. Two weeks ago (before Korea, oh I have to tell you about Seoul and the wonderfullness of it, but I'll save it when for when I post the pictures), I was going over vocabulary on a Monday in my English class. Typical vocab Monday. The kids are bored and still waking up, because I see this class first period. They're too tired to even try to sneak some iPod listening or PSP playing during class. So, they're dead. Then I get to the vocab word "emission." Yes, you see where this headed. One boy looks it up on his electronic dictionary, giggles, and passes it to some other boys in a row.

"Oh, this is very good word Mr. Wong," Shone says. Shone, half Isreali and half Taiwanese, who is the loudest kid by far, spikey hair, skinny jeans.

I ignore him and move on. "Can anyone use this word in a sentence? Anyone?"

Shone's hand shoots up. "Oh, oh. Mr. Wong, I have sentence."

I hesitate, but everyone else is still dead, so I give in. "Ok Shone."

"I cum. C-U-M," he spells out.

I freeze for a bit. "Um..." Finally I say, "That would be a better sentence if you used the word emit."

ok, inappropriate anecdote done.

I'm still trying to figure out when to tell the kids I'm leaving. One knows already, June, but she hasn't told the others yet. I don't know why I'm dragging my feet. These kids are used to their teachers leaving them, but I want to wait a little longer, if just to pretend that I'll be around to see them grow up, and help them when Shanghai and life in general are too much.

Ok, that's enough of dear diary. Next will be Hangzhou or Korea, or maybe I'll move on to a Joyce post I've been meaning to get to.