Do you like "Ancient" Music?

hmmmm, so after hearing from everyone, and their mother, or was it my mother, that I haven't updated my blog in eons, I am back to do the cursory news overview before I head on my way to Kunming. I am on holiday for 7 days....yes in China, they don't give you the two weekends flanking the holiday week off...you only get one. So in fine eastern style I will be back at work on Saturday October 8th to begin a seven-day work week wooohooo. When I inquired of my contact teacher, whether I needed to be back by the Saturday, he said "why Kristen, we do not work on Saturdays and Sundays, that is the weekend!" and so I responded, "ok Mr. Yang, so you mean that I do not have to be back to teach until October 10th?" and he said, "no Kristen, we will see you on the 8th." For all you calender-challenged, the 8th is Saturday. At that point I was unsure that this whole conversation hinged upon misunderstandings of language....I really think he was just trying to make the whole holiday concept seem better or something.

I am teaching my junior3s about music this week and today (Thursday) and I learned (after teaching 4 other classes the same lesson earlier in the week and having them tell me that I'm weird) that when I say I love country music, my students took that to mean I love Chinese country music which can basically be likened to how a cat sounds if he were to die hung upsidedown via toenail extraction. But when I started giving them samples of different music in class today, they understood what "I" meant by Country....they call it Cowboy music. I was the world's most popular teacher this afternoon for using a clip of the Backstreet Boys "Incomplete" song for the example of pop music, b/c that CD hasn't actually come out here yet. A couple students asked me where i bought the CD b/c they want it and they cannot find it anywhere. By the way, these were all boys that asked me for the Backstreet Boys CD. Then I had to explain 'Oldies' b/c when my students were working on an activity to make their own band, a couple called it ancient music. When I asked them to elaborate they say, 'you know Ms. Nelson, music that is 20 or 30 years old.' I had to laugh. This class followed my Junior 1 class where when I asked students how they could travel on vacations they told me among normal things like planes and buses, that UFOs, brooms, elephants and submarines were good modes of transportation. I love the imaginations of children - they make life interesting

Our principal retired officially today. He drove his car onto the tiled front plaza of the school after lunch. I think it was so when he left, everyone would feel rather obligated to remove themselves from their offices and fawn over the outgoing leader. Apparently the new principal is a real sharp fellow....they're all fellows here....all males in all of the important positions, and all women in the copy room, bah! We still have 5 asst. principals. What the heck can 5 dudes possibly be doing? On a random note, I went into my makeshift office ten minutes before afternoon classes started today to print out a document and I woke up one of my colleagues that was sleeping on his desk. I'm fairly certain his grumpiness for the remainder of the day was linearly related to my having disrupted said slumber. Teacher naps at lunch are a big deal here. There are two hours for lunch and every teacher will take a nap until that class bell rings for the first afternoon period. It's weird, however if I were one of the teachers who acts as RAs on campus for the 1500 boarders, I would be taking a nap too. Their days mimic the student's day and go from 6am-10:40pm and they are only allowed to leave campus for one hour during dinner. I just might go nuts if I was a student.

It's 95 and humid here and today the school passed out the winter track-suit uniforms for the students (they only have to do the fancy plaid skirt, tie, pressed blouse uniform for special occasions). I was standing there thinking that the school is being VERY optimistic wrt to the weather b/c I wouldn't be caught dead in a polyester track suit until the temp drops oh, about 30 degrees. Though I was also standing there thinking that I really like the outfit and I wonder if I could get one....I mean I could use the bottoms as capris.

It finally stopped raining here....a week after the monsoon/typhoon arrived, thank goodness. However, the rain left and now my lovely neighborhood smells like a public toilet and I'm not sure why. Mmmmm, I love the smell of garbage in the morning. However, it has given me something to talk about with the security gaurds around campus....man, every little bit of Chinese practice helps.

Awww....I'm so excited about this. I found a yarn store/garage near to where I live, so this winter I'm just going to knit things....my next thing to learn is how to make mittens :-)

I'm off to Kunming for a week with three friends starting tomorrow night. We've got our plane tickets to Kunming and will buy tickets for the 30-hour sleeper train home, when we get there. However, if they are all sold out, it will be a 30 hour bus ride....God help us! The train is a smooth ride, the bus ride....a 30 hour vibrating butt massage. I'm soooooo excited to go travelling. I'll bring home stories and photos.