First day of the month was the only break I will get in this insane ten day course. Most of it was spent doing absolutely nothing. It was lovely. Monday however, was rough. There was an oral presentation, which went alright. I get nervous speaking in another language, so I end up reading my presentation instead out saying it. But Laoshi said I did well so I will not complain. Almost immediately after that I needed to go to work. The theme of the day was soap. I think it went fairly well, generally speaking. We actually made some soap, a recipe I got off the internet. The kids are doing alright. I am now trying to send them home with worksheets that show what they are meant to learn. That way the parents can feel like their child learned something while in my class. It’s frustrating that the English portion of this class is such a joke. I wish I could just have an interpreter, at least then the kids could learn something useful. After work it was a bit of a mad dash back home. I had a significant amount of homework to do and not enough time to do it. I managed through and was rewarded with a bowl of jaozi (dumplings). It’s cold here, wet and cold. I find it hard to get warm except to curl up under coats or blankets. Drying laundry is an experience as it never actually gets dry, just less damp. Nothing to do but to put on cold, damp pants, always a cheap thrill in the morning. Speaking of mornings, tomorrow’s is coming quickly. Good night!
Feb. 3, 2015
I woke up with a miserable back, my sciatic nerve is doing the weird pinch thing again. If I move the wrong way it causes a shooting pain down my back and right leg. I didn’t really notice it too much during class but as the day progressed it got worse. then on the bus ride to work I jerked it too hard. So it was aching by the time class started. The theme of the day was water. First part of the class involved discussion of the water cycle, which the kids understood exactly nothing. It’s amazing that they can sit through a short cartoon but not understand anything. Then right before break I had them line up. Now Chinese children mirror their culture and queuing is not an orderly process. Today they managed to ram my back into a doorknob. And now my back is gone. I had to lie down for a good thirty minutes and then stretch before I could even go back into the classroom. You’ll see the pictures of me helping the kids make candy, I am in a silly amount of pain there. I managed to get home and proceed to die on the couch. Wentao will be taking me to a doctor tomorrow, who will be able to help my poor back. This does mean however, that I will not be going in to work, which is a bummer. However, it’s a section on the human body so it shouldn’t be too hard for anyone to sub with. I have two coloring sheets and easy to follow directions, we’ll see how it goes. For now I am taking it easy and resting. Tomorrow I will hopefully be right as rain.
Feb. 4, 2015
So no class in the morning which left me with TV and computer for most of the day. My back is most definitely killing me so there really wasn’t much I could do. Then at 3pm I was off with Wentao, she took me to nice area of town. There we went to a traditional Chinese medicine doctor’s office, where I met Dr. WangLi. Within a few moment of talking with her it was decided that I would have acupuncture and fire cupping. The acupuncture also came with a treatment of electricity, it was actually pretty relaxing. Wentao being there helped because I could communicate clearly what was going on. I was also prescribed some traditional Chinese medicine, twice a day four pills each time for the blood flow. The fire cupping was less relaxing, it actually hurt quite a bit, but I endured it. When it was all said and done I was able to get off the table without hardly any pain. The doctor said I needed to come back for two more treatments, then I should be good. It was pretty amazing how well everything worked. I still have a little pain when I stand and sit but hopefully that will clear up as I continue the treatments. I have pictures of me on the table, but I won;t be posting them due to some nudity. Over all the treatment and the pills cost me 200 RMB ( a little less than 40 USD). I was able to make dinner and relax for the rest of the evening. Now it is be time for bed, hopefully I will feel even better.
Feb. 5, 2015
Class went generally well. Next week we have our first test, then a week off for Chinese New Year. I don’t know what I will be doing for the Spring Festival yet, probably traipsing around Chengdu and getting some touristy things checked off the list. After class I dashed home for lunch. After waiting a little while I caught a bus over to the doctor’s office. Once there I got to nervous to explain how my pain was. The doctor spoke a little English but not really enough to understand each other. Eventually we got it worked out, one of things about learning a new language is people are going to think you don’t know what’s going on even when you do. So I’m lying there behind a curtain, sans my pants and I can hear the doctors making fun of my Chinese. I let it slide because it happens and I knew I had messed up. Then this lady walks in and she starts asking Dr.Wang if she can understand something written down. Then the two of them start trying speak english. “May I ask you some questions?” was the sentence, they botched it a bunch times so I finally said it in my teacher voice. The lady come over and exclaims in Chinese “You are a foreigner”. Then she starts trying to speak to me in English, I tell her to speak to me in Chinese. Then I had a conversation with her in Chinese. We exchanged numbers so I could talk to her daughter, who is studying English in a different province. After she left Dr. Wang comes over and is like “You speak Chinese, you understand Chinese!” Then we talked a little bit, and I felt extremely accomplished. After this session I felt really good, I am really pleased with the treatment. I headed home and just relaxed. I need to start studying for my exam. Dinner was a quick affair, and then Jesse and proceeded to watch bad movie. The night ended with Conan the Barbarian and it was pure magic. I love making fun of bad movie, we were all in stitches before the night was over. It was a nice apartment night for all of us.
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