The Ping Pong Tournament

So the Chinese are super serious about ping pong. It is one of the activities that our students can play after lunch and numerous students are pretty good, so the school decided to create a ping pong tournament. It started off as something for the students, with separate pools for the girls and the boys. Our middle school and high school ruled in that tournament, with one of my 6th grade homeroom students winning for the boys and one of our German students winning for the girls.
Then the coordinator decided to involve us teachers. Normally that would be a good idea, but we have two groups of teachers, the Chinese, who are really good at table tennis and the Americans, who aren't terribly talented (at all!). Trying to be fair, the first round paired a Chinese against an American, which resulted in almost all of the Americans being eliminated. Then, to help even the playing ground, they redid the pairings to have the Americans playing each other. Either way, I lost big time. I played the first grade Chinese teacher who beat me quite quickly and then I played Lindsey who beat me just as swiftly (she grew up with a ping pong table in her rec room). Needless to say, I don't terribly enjoy playing, but I tried to be a good sport and I even scored a few points in the process :)



Our Admissions administrator, Jessica, playing Megan with our smiley security guard looking on.



Our Dean, Mrs. Tang, playing Fiona, the art teacher, with our principal keeping score.



The Americans teachers chillin' after getting beat.


I've said it before and I'll repeat it again here, the biggest surprise in teaching this year has been how much I love teaching science. I never enjoyed the natural sciences or math in school and I was really nervous to teach it. Overall, the best experience by far has been teaching these two hours a week. The students love to do "experiments" (it's hard to call them actually experiments because we're not following true scientific procedure, but oh well). Right now we are studying energy (light, sound, heat, electrical, potential, kinetic, etc.) and last week it was really sunny. When I saw that, I made up a light and heat energy experiment on the spot--the pyro use-a-magnifying-glass-to-burn-stuff experiment and the kids loved it. Our hypothesis was that the green or the red paper would burn quickest. They were so patient and tried very hard to get it to burn. Some of them were successful and then a few of them had the genius idea of finding a black marker and coloring the paper. Then they were all successful and that's why I love science class.




One of my homeroom students trying to light the pink paper on fire.



Our Taiwanese student trying her luck at some more paper.



Success! That's black marker with a hole burned in the middle (in case you can't tell :)



One of my other homeroom students trying his luck at the colored black paper.



Two of the Korean girls trying so patiently to get the black paper to catch on fire--I don't think they were successful because the sun disappeared towards the end of the period, perfect timing!

I do love it: A day in the life of Rachel=ping pong and science. Could it get any better?!?

rpm

A Weekend in Shanghai

A few weekends ago, a group of us went to Shanghai. It was a wonderful weekend away because it was a welcomed change of scenery. The highlights from the weekend were:

• Riding the train for the first time--much quicker than a coach bus and all around more convenient.
• Staying in a new youth hostel.
• Great Italian, Chinese, and Mexican coupled with some spirits and yummy desserts (we certainly got our fill of nice food).
• Stocking up on the latest English editions of Newsweek and buying new books.
• Meeting new friends and experiencing their gracious hospitality.
• Taking a tour of the Huangpu river at night.
• Observing Shanghai from the Jinmao Tower--the fourth tallest tower in the world!
• Enjoying the small things in life (a soft bed for two nights, finding gummi bears, attending an International Fellowship, riding the subway).

Here are the highlights in photos:


The Ferrari store--they sold only Ferrari merchandise, no cars.



It wasn't Krispy Kreme, but it was a darn good old fashioned doughnut (my favorite!)



The bowtie making itself known to the fastest growing car market in the world (Beijing sells 1000 new cars a day and I'm sure the number is similar in Shanghai).



A traditional market in the Old Town.



A not-so-traditional store trying to blend in.



The sides of the buildings are used as ads, that's why they are all colorful.



The Shanghai skyline lit up at night.



The intricate wood on the boat.



The way the light reflected on the water was just gorgeous.



Another similar picture, I know, but I can't help myself, it's just so cool (and it took me forever to get it to turn out right, I had to rest the camera on the railing to get it still enough).



I do love Shanghai, it's a totally different feel than Wuxi and I like switching it up a bit every once in a while.



Megan and me goofing around at the Mexican restaurant (she's flashing the new version of the peace sign that we picked up from watching Chinese music videos on the bus).



Looking down from the Jinmao Tower (the other tower with the two balls is the Oriental Pearl tower which makes the skyline of Shanghai very distinct).



A tree with lots of wishes for good luck attached to it.



Needless to say, the air quality on this particular day wasn't the best.



The construction of another very tall building close to the Jinmao.



Only 10550 km to Los Angeles!



Even though it was a bit muggy, the view was still pretty cool.



The Jinmao sports the world's tallest restaurant, post office, and hotel. This picture is taken looking down into the atrium of the hotel (the hotel itself starts at like the 40th floor).



It is pretty trippy to look down and it sure makes an awesome picture.



The tower is so tall that it couldn't even fit in a picture taken from the ground looking up.

It's always nice to get away for the weekend and I'm so lucky that it's possible to do a quick trip into the big city.

Come to visit China--both Wuxi and Shanghai ;)

rpm

Fall Trip

You are cordially invited to chaos (AKA awesome entertainment)--

Who: The entire Wuxi Oriental International School (including a host of parent chaperones and children)
What: Fall Trip
Where: Suzhou Amusement Park
Why: We're not really sure--maybe because it just sounded fun?!?
When: November 1st, 8 to 3 (The fall trip was originally scheduled for three days--honestly I'm not sure what we could have done with our students for three days. I'm very glad that they made it just a day trip)
How: transportation by charter bus to the location, by foot around the park (we also rode the train)

So I (really the omnipresent collective "we") had no idea what to expect from this field trip to the amusement park. What was the park going to be like? What were the expectations in terms of us as teachers and the students? What is proper procedure for a field trip (esp. in China!!)? I'm not sure if I really ever got answers to any of these questions, but the most important thing was that I enjoyed the field trip and got to know my students better.

The amusement park was comparable to one in the States and was packed with Chinese students who greeted us Americans at every meter. My students were gently reminded how unique it is that they have foreigner teachers. Our general admission got us in the park and onto most rides. We did the normal amusement park stuff, like the swings and the carousel. The highlight of the entire day was riding the roller coaster. We had to pay extra for the ride, but it was totally worth it. The whole school (pretty much except for first grade and a part of third grade) came to watch us ride it. I think most of our students were more excited for us than we were ourselves. Two of my students rode with us, a few of Karri's and Lindsey's and then five of us teachers. It had been a while since I'd been on one and I totally forgot what an adrenaline rush it was. For some of the students it was their first time riding a roller coaster and the look on their faces was priceless at the end (this was totally the corkscrew, go upside down multiple times, and then into a secret tunnel type of roller coaster). When we were walking back to get our stuff, all the Chinese teachers were asking us if we were ok. After talking to them, only one of them had ever been on a roller coaster and they were apparently pretty scared that we did it (and probably even more so since we convinced our students to go along :) It's funny how I take something so simple (ie riding a roller coaster) for granted.

The evidence is as follows:
But first another sign of great Chinese packaging--


I bought this shoe rack to put my t-shirts and sweaters in--the top right corner reads exactly, "convenience iscollected/arrange colthing, good assistant" Hmm...



The entire school, complete with the next generation of students in their mothers' strollers.



The middle and high school--these are my kiddos!!



Beth (the math teacher) with some of our girls at the entrance of the park.



Our Korean middle schoolers enjoying the carousel.



Another highlight was this ride--it took us up to look over the entire park and the city of Suzhou. The park is built around the lake, an absolutely beautiful setting!



Two of my homeroom students, the music teacher and the principal all taking in the view.



The city of Suzhou as seen through the fog/smog/haze (I still really don't know what to call our pathetic excuse for air).



The wonderful lunch that the students brought--apparently it is the food that every Korean has to bring on a field trip. I think I ate more of their lunch than I did my own!



Some of the boys getting their head eaten by a shark!



The stunned look of horror that middle schoolers are so good at.



"The Happy World"--what a great name for an amusement park (The Chinese are obsessed with making sure everyone is happy and the word often turns up in strange places).



Scream has been imported to China--oh, I cannot escape Hollywood, even if I tried!




My sweet girls and I on the Ferris wheel.



Beth, Scary Scream boy (one of our 8th graders), and the rest of the boys next to us on the Ferris wheel.



Our 8th grader and one of the 5th graders trying to navigate their bumper car and scare people, all at the same time.



Our demolished Orange Restaurant--now that is something to be scared about!



They told us they'd be closed for 5 weeks, but they are pushing at least 7 weeks to date, and I don't think they'll be back in business anytime soon. It is a true tragedy and we can't wait for them to open again soon (I'm hopeful they'll be back before Christmas).



The construction project as seen from the other side of the street--I'm not trying to be too crazy about it, but it's hard to show with pictures the scale of this project. It's huge and they work 24-7, so I won't be surprised if they are finished before the school year is over.



My inexperience with drinking alcohol is now visible to all...Apparently sissy beverages (think: Mike's Hard) don't have enough pure alcohol not to freeze in cold temperatures. Live and learn I guess (notice the very broken nature of the glass, they didn't just open to release the pressure, they full out exploded!)

Still left to report on: The trip to Shanghai and the ping pong tournament, plus tomorrow's adventure--A Chinese wedding! To quote my dad, "Stay tuned, more to follow!"

rpm

Softball

Well, it's been forever since I've posted, but I finally have gotten my act together to write something of substance. I've certainly been occupied with school and the whole I-can't-even -read-my-own-blog-thing doesn't help matters but here's a few shorter postings on what I've been up to the last few weeks (with pics again, woohoo :)

A few of us went to go play softball with some expats almost a month ago. I ended up not even playing, I just read my book and chilled, but it was really fun. Fun because baseball (ok softball) is so American, fun because we explored a new part of our city, fun because we met new people. Lindsey and Megan rotated pitching for the team that they played for and Daniel played in the outfield.



Megan at bat against some serious ball players.



Swing batter, batter! Lindsey on deck, waiting for Megs to finish.

Now how's that for a short posting :)

rpm