Ch Ch Ch Chi(n)a!

  Guizhou, China
Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Someone in Guizhou got the idea to make Chia pets out of a nylon, ribbons, rubber bands, and googly eyes, and sell them at the outdoor market. I bought one about a week ago and it's doing pretty good. I call him Rui, which is Chinese for King, due to his resemblance to Don King

The outdoor market here is pretty exciting. It covers about a square block and is so crowded that we have, on occasion, stopped at the entrance, looked at the people standing on each other's feet shuffling around, and just walked away. It's a sort of hybrid between a flea market and wall street, with merchants shouting prices and lowering or raising them depending on what other merchants are shouting. Most of what is sold is clothes, although you can get anything from high end jewelry to, well, homemade Chia pets.

As far as school goes, things are good. We only have about a month left in the semester, and two weeks of that will be finals. So, we're really wrapping up our first semester. I'd say it was a success, although there are many changes we want to make next semester. I'll also start my first secondary project next semester, which will be starting an English learning podcast done by two different students each week. They'll write English dialogues, and I'll be the "native speaker" during the dialogue. Then, they will go line by line translating and explaining in Chinese for the listeners. It's the type of thing I wish I could do in my classes, but I just don't know enough Chinese to teach that way. All my students are current teachers (or will be teachers soon), so it gives them some practice teaching English as well as helping students at other schools who can listen to the podcasts. Before I leave I'll collect the podcasts onto a CD for teachers at our school to use in their classes.

Jenn's thinking of some secondary projects as well, ranging from an HIV awareness club to a Harry Potter book club.

Other than that, there's not much to report. I gave a speech at school to any students who were interested in attending, and about the same number of students came that attend our weekly movie nights (a little under a hundred). So, that was a success. They gave me flowers and had a microphone and everything. We (well, mostly Jenn) taught some of our students the Electric Slide. Unfortunately we didn't have the camera with us, or we would have got some great pictures. And, now I know the Electric Slide. We're planning on having Christmas in Zunyi, with a bunch of other volunteers. So, we're really looking forward to that.

And, that's about it for my update of Guizhou life =]