Teacher Getting Hit By Culture: Just in Time for a Break

Hi All,

Well I thought it would be a quiet bit of time between the start of November and the Christmas break. The weeks have simply flown by, and there's been a frenzy of little things that have happened in the last month.

November is MOvember month, and I thought I'd give the stauche a try. Now I knew it would be a weak attempt but our school was raising money for cancer research by allowing students to buy tickets for a raffle, and I knew the students would really get a kick from being able to shave what little facial hair I had. If they were picked from the raffle, the students get to shave the mustauche off a male teacher however they wanted or draw a mustache on a female teacher. In either case, the teacher would have to wear the new look for a day. By the end of the month, the mustache was getting quite bristly and I was glad it was coming off.

Our volleyball season has reached the 2nd phase. At the end of the last entry, our 14-15 team was coming of arguably their worse effort on the year. Thankfully we rebounded with a much better effort in the final 2 games, picking up a win and competing every step of the way in our only other loss. The 12-13 team also picked up their first win a week after the 14-15 team. Similarly, their final game was their best played as well. It was a game we should've won in straight sets as we showed ourselves as the better team through most of the match. Unfortunately, we squandered 2 set points, committed a plethora of poorly executed plays down the stretch, and the opposing team had 2 violations not get called against them in the first set, eventually losing 27-25. We dominated the 2nd set, and despite letting the opposing team crawl half-way out of a seemingly insurmountable deficit, still won handily, 25-16. In the 3rd set, the other team stepped up their intensity and we just couldn't fully match it, losing the set 15-11. Regardless of the result, it was a great game simply to watch.

Shortly after the local league season, we made our team selections for the marquee tournament on our calendar, the South China International School Athletics Conference (henceforth known as SCISAC) tournament in late February. It was a really tough decision because unlike last year, we felt that there were more than the maximum number of girls that could make the team that deserved to go. Unfortunately, that's simply the reality of sports. I am sure that a few of the girls were heartbroken. Last year, I gave one of those girls a pep talk about how her motivation moving forward would be proving to us that it was wrong to have left her off the team. I think the message really stuck with her because she ended being our team captain for the 12-13 team this year and will be one of our starting setters at SCISAC. I gave the same pep talk this year to some of the girls and hopefully that will work to the same effect. Unfortunately, there's no time to wallow in misery, as the younger players have the Pearl River Conference (PRC) tournament during on January 19th, that we are hosting!

During the home stretch in December, there is plenty abound in school and not enough time to do everything. I was originally planning on taking my students to go see the Human Bodies exhibit at the Venetian but unfortunately it'll have to be postponed until January. I also couldn't make time for the "Hand on Fire" experiment this year either. The kids are pretty upset because, well, they like seeing there science teacher's hand catch fire.

Things are really starting to ramp up for the planning phase of our experience week trip in March. It makes me panic to think of how much stuff needs to be done in the next 7 weeks of school before the trip, considering the amount of chasing student documentation I've already had to do. Thankfully, the trip is coming together as we now have a tentative itinerary and estimated cost of the trip. I'm also getting a good response for the grade 7s saying that the vast majority will come to Taiwan.

During the last 2 weeks, all the grade 7 and 9 students were running around, practicing night and day for the Christmas concert. The show was quite enjoyable and it drew an amazing crowd, as secondary students and parents are generally not as enthusiastic about coming out to the extra-hours school events as the elementary group is. Despite the busyness, I managed to make a trip into Zhuhai again, this time with some student teachers in tow. We went exploring for some fake designer-brand items (using my Asian bargaining skills to get the best prices possible), perused the coastal area, and eating ridiculous amounts of fresh and remarkably affordable seafood at Wen zai seafood street. The student teachers and myself tried eating sting ray for the first time that day too. It was surprisingly good and I could definitely go back to it again. With my ability to now use the express lanes to exit/enter Macau, and with luck, zip through the always quicker foreigners lanes on the mainland China side, it might actually be feasible to make more frequent weekend day trips to Zhuhai to pick up some less than legal dvds, get a haircut (which is orders of magnitudes cheaper in China vs Macau), indulge/binge on cheap seafood, and/or any combination of the above.

Well the rest of entry will contain photos covering some of the points I have mentioned here. I wish everyone back home and those abroad, a safe and happy Christmas! I hope to see some of you very soon and fill you in on the details in person!

Getting Hit By Culture Moment: There's a particular way of calling young men or male waiters (especially by females) in Mandarin & Cantonese that I've found annoying, especially if I'm the one it is being directed to. The phrase is "Lang zai", and it translates over to pretty boy. Now it's been quite a few years since I've been called "Lang zai", but just last week the cashier at the supermarket called me that, and it surprised and annoyed me. I thought the days of being called pretty boy were over, but apparently not. But unfortunately the story doesn't end there. At the seafood street in Zhuhai, as the restaurant folks are trying to get us bring our freshly bought seafood to their restaurant, all whole street full of women restaurant hostesses were hailing me with "Lang zai" on the street. I'm glad at least they think I'm pretty :)

Another Getting Hit by Culture Moment: The Zhuhai cab driver got angry at me when I couldn't tell him the specific name of the seafood street I wanted to go to, because apparently there are more than 1 in Zhuhai. I simply directed him in a general direction until eventually he called out the name of the seafood street. Mercifully, the name rang a bell and I hollered "yes that one" in Mandarin. The good news out of all of this is that I'll never forget the name of this Wen zai seafood street again.

You Know You Live in Macau When: First a warning, There are some very minor spoilers for the new 007 movie, Skyfall, here. Avert your eyes if you want absolutely nothing spoiled. I would definitely go watch the movie because it was one of the best 007 in recent memory. For those that have seen Skyfall, you will remember that there's a few scenes in Macau. Macau looks nothing like that. Even the aerial shots of the city night lights are complete fabricated. Sorry to disappoint you but none of our casinos float on water. In fact, it was an unintentional bit of comedy in the theatre when the first city shots showed up. Everyone in the theatre, including myself gave a small knowing chuckle the scene first appeared.

It's that time of year again... Movember

My desk and classroom are all decked out for Christmas

An eerie dance

It's what on the inside that counts

Self-five!

Bone baby

The Venetian is setup in a festive atmosphere

A BIG Christmas tree

The long hallways of the Venetian

Outdoor tree

The jerseys I designed exists in material form now. How do you think they turned out?

Meet the 2013 TIS Girls SCISAC Team

Seen here is the official tournament logo for the 2013 Association of Chinese and Mongolian International Schools (ACAMIS) high school basketball tournament in Jan. 2013. Designed by yours truly.