Friday, June 15

Today, it is so foggy that from the windows of the school, I cannot see the ocean!  Incredible!  Yet, all day, there were people out there watching the sea, watching the waves crashing (which we could hear).  I’m not the only one fascinated!  Later in the day, I could dimly see the boardwalk and the railing, and just see the heave of the sea as it pulled back from the shore, over and over—in that lighting, the sea truly looked alive.  Makes the idea of sea serpents so much more believable!

Cleaning up after all the storming

Scootering through the fog

I realized as we drove to school, in the dense fog, that almost no cars had headlights on.  Amazing, given the wide interpretation of driving rules!  We stopped, as has become a regular routine, at the breakfast stand for some breakfast for the Chinese staff.  I watched a man sitting under one of the innumerable pop-up tents that the Chinese use for both sun and rain eating a hardboiled egg with chopsticks.  Easy as pie.  Impressive!  I am going to try that;  Maggie contends that chopsticks are good for the brain.  I wonder why; on the other hand, I contended to someone today that nursing is good for the child’s brain, and couldn’t produce an actual fact to back that up, so who am I to doubt!

Julia had, overall, an excellent day.  Whew!  Can it last through 10 more school days?  She and Dylan spent the day in various activities, so there was always a pal and generally a plan.  They did some Montessori works at first—mainly, placed the pieces of Europe and Asia on the map puzzle, quite challenging.  When we made a Father’s Day craft with the little ones, they joined right in enthusiastically.  I think the aides enjoyed this, having doubted that it would be a good idea.  Sabrina, as is her wont, led her table in a careful set of steps to complete the craft (making a teddy bear out of a set of circles), so that each was decently complete and similar.  I, of course, let them do what they wanted after I showed them a model and gave supporting verbal direction-encouragements.  Those at my table were far more various and some were … interesting looking.  Which method of education is more effective (I guess it depends on what outcomes you want to measure)? 

Working on a puzzle with Dylan

I have had the thought a couple of times this week that I am redundant in the classroom at this point; kind of a weird feeling!  I have helped them to get settled, as is visible I believe, and I have established some activities that are worthwhile and educational.  Furthermore, I have reestablished the educational focus of the class, much to the delight of the aides and generally to the enjoyment of the children.  But, a lot of the education in the room needs a Chinese speaker for real success.  When I am working with a child, s/he and I know that I can’t understand them, so the nuance is lost, the opportunity for murmuring support or direction or even rebuke is lost, the question can’t be answered.  Ultimately, this makes the connection sterile, so why would the children seek me out?  Several children do in fact just behave as though they can talk to me; Bowen comes to me often, takes me by the hand, and, looking up into my eyes, says the most sweet sounding things.  He seems to believe that one time it will work!   But generally, the children who have almost no English don’t really relish working with me.  I have to be doing something ‘fun’ for them to agree to it!  There are several (maybe 4) children who can speak enough English to have more meaningful contact with me, so I am not wholly useless! 

We did do something fun after lunch.  It was not weather to have outside recess, but the children were in need of some exercise.  So we played musical chairs, strongly advocated for by Julia!  I could tell the aides weren’t too keen on this idea, when I mentioned it earlier in the week, but desperate times demand desperate measures!  And, needless to say, the children LOVED it!  It was fun to watch some of them develop very canny techniques very quickly—Charlotte simply ‘got it’ instantly, and played very cleverly right to the winner’s circle.  And Ody, the dreamiest of dreamy 3 year olds, lasted until he was pitted against 8 year old Julia, 6 year old Dylan and 5 year old and tall McDull (don’t ask where this name comes from; I don’t know, and I don’t entirely understand why they all give up their Chinese names for English names; it’s a mystery)—impressive for such an ‘out to lunch’ boy (I taught that phrase to Mia, who is trying to figure Ody out; she loved it). 

In fact, the game was such a success that as we started the second round, a half dozen of the Chinese staff came to watch from the doorway!  And laughed and cheered for the various contenders.  It was really funny; and kind of a relief—I have had a bit of a worry that the connection with the Chinese staff had shifted, so I was glad to have an opportunity to ‘look good’ with them.   

I had the realization today that I will be the only non-Chinese staff person in the building for the next two weeks; this gives me a little pause because of the communication thing.  Of course, there are plenty of English speakers; but communication isn’t solely about a shared language!  The nuance, and the cultural issues have potential to make things interesting.  Not that I have any concrete worries; they have been as kind as kind can be.  Ms. Gao, the business person, has been in charge of getting Julia’s special visa, which, as I have related, has taken a number of weeks and steps.  She brought Julia’s passport back to me today, at last, and made the point to have an English speaker explain to me that Julia has been given a full year visa by the authorities—she can come back to China any time from now until next June 4, 2013!  Ms. Gao was so pleased with this information; clearly she expects Julia to return!  I didn’t mention the cost; seemed impolite in the circumstances. 

Our last day with Ms. Alice and principal Chris

Julia came running into the classroom at about 2 brimming over with excitement:  she has learned to count up to 10 in Chinese!  I had to ‘require’ her to do that today, but it was a huge success for her and the Chinese staff person—really turned around their connection!   They all had a lot of pride in the event, including Dylan, who listened to her demonstrating to me, and softly called from the hallway “shur” when she paused for 10!  Then they all three went outside for 10 minutes of physical activity, which I could see from the window; the aide was a really good sport!  Julia spent a good part of dinner counting in 3 languages. 

We had a late afternoon outing with Ms. Alice; went to a teashop and had iced tea and tiny donuts, much to Julia’s delight.  She scorned the tea—too sour!—but ate 4 donuts.  Ms. Alice—an ethnic Chinese Australian-- is hoping for a baby in the next year; in her sweet naiveté, she thinks it will happen within a few months!  I, of course, got passionate about pregnancy, birth, nursing, etc.  She was agog with my picture of how it could go and what she could ask for; she is working in a fairly medicalized notion of birth, fueled by some scare stories about hard births.  Of course I come in at a very different end of the spectrum; she had the good grace to be receptive and interested in my thoughts and experiences.  I hope to be able to encourage her to move a few steps down the road, for her sake and the baby’s sake.  It is a little hard for me to imagine giving birth in China, I have to admit.  I can’t really imagine that there will be a lot of room for self-expression. 

Trays of tiny donuts!

Enjoying our afternoon tea

We went from the teashop to Istanbul for dinner with husband Nick; a kind of last outing with them before they leave for a month’s much deserved vacation and a farewell to two people who have been very kind and helpful to both Julia and me.  We had some really tasty food; worth the second trip, which I had not expected.  Alice and Nick have a suitcase to gift us with, so we won’t have to purchase another to get all our loot home; nice deal!  We will collect it from them and get a chance to see the site of the new school, which is moving over the summer to a location out here near our community.  There are many on the staff who are mourning the loss of the location so near the sea; I would miss it if I were them.  The newly renovated building had better have some great features in compensation!  We should start a collection of books to help stock their library; they have a start but many holes. 

A blurry photo - but our last dinner with Ms. Alice and Nick!

Only two weekends left—hope tomorrow brings some clear weather so that we can go to a park, or a beach or climb a mountain!