One time, whilst in China, we were eating this vegetable that they had served us for lunch. At the time, I had no idea what the vegetable was, but I've since learned it's called bok choy and you can buy it at most grocery stores. This pleases me exceedingly, but I digress.
For some reason (which I may learn about at some point over the next year in o chem) this particular batch tasted a little off. All my girls and I were discussing how not-great it tasted, and I was sitting there, looking at Megan (my friend from p chem last year) and I said, "You know what it is? It tastes really basic. Yes." That was the end of it in my head, and I was so happy to have finally, after eating like half of our serving, placed what was weird about it. It tasted way more basic than it usually does. I guess it's more acidic usually.
Anyway, Megan is a double major in chem and bio, so she nodded and replied back, "Yeah, it does taste a little more bitter than usual."
Bitter. Haha. As soon as she said it, I knew I had used a unique term. Still correct, but the normal thing to say would have been bitter. And yet that word just did not come to my brain, at all, and I was totally satisfied at having thought of the word basic instead.
But you know, I still am satisfied with it! It just accentuates my working knowledge. Haha.
Moral of the story: bases taste bitter, and as a fun bonus, acids taste sour. Hence lemons. And apparently I will always have chemistry on the brain for the rest of my life.
Bitter.
Showing posts with label China (doing it again). Show all posts
Showing posts with label China (doing it again). Show all posts
Aug 22, 2015
Apr 26, 2015
Success!
A successful moment in my life:
Today I was walking home from school and a lady was in front of me who had some sweet shoes, so I said, "I like your shoes! 我喜欢你的写！" and she understood! Hooray.
(Side note, I don't actually know the character for shoes, so swype might have led me astray.)
Second successful moment in my life:
Today I was helping Chelsey fine tune her teaching and talk more about the details of objects as we were on a break between class. We were in her classroom and I was just picking up various objects she had been using in teaching, taking about the details of them. Wow, look at this racket! Its strings are horizontal and vertical! Listen, ssh ssh. Did you hear that? When I pluck it, it makes a sound! These details have nothing to do with the lesson, but they're important to talk through. At this point, Jimmy (from the story yesterday) came back in the class to hang out. And look at the feathers on this birdie! They're soft, can you feel it? And this tip is rounded! Oh, it's also soft can you feel it? And wow, look, it has a stripe!
Jimmy joins in, "It has a stripe!"
"Yeah, and hey Jimmy, come here, there's a stripe on your uniform!" He looks down in amazement. "What about me, do I have a stripe?"
"No. No stripe."
"Yeah, there's no stripes on my clothes. What about Teacher Chelsey?"
"No stripes."
"She has no stripes, either!"
"She has no stripes either!"
It was perfect. He modeled everything exactly like he would have in class, and he engaged in it on his own, I didn't prompt him to chime in until he decided he wanted to. What a cute little powerful demonstration for Chelsey on how easy it can be to keep the kiddos engaged. :)
All y'all can continue to be jealous.
Today I was walking home from school and a lady was in front of me who had some sweet shoes, so I said, "I like your shoes! 我喜欢你的写！" and she understood! Hooray.
(Side note, I don't actually know the character for shoes, so swype might have led me astray.)
Second successful moment in my life:
Today I was helping Chelsey fine tune her teaching and talk more about the details of objects as we were on a break between class. We were in her classroom and I was just picking up various objects she had been using in teaching, taking about the details of them. Wow, look at this racket! Its strings are horizontal and vertical! Listen, ssh ssh. Did you hear that? When I pluck it, it makes a sound! These details have nothing to do with the lesson, but they're important to talk through. At this point, Jimmy (from the story yesterday) came back in the class to hang out. And look at the feathers on this birdie! They're soft, can you feel it? And this tip is rounded! Oh, it's also soft can you feel it? And wow, look, it has a stripe!
Jimmy joins in, "It has a stripe!"
"Yeah, and hey Jimmy, come here, there's a stripe on your uniform!" He looks down in amazement. "What about me, do I have a stripe?"
"No. No stripe."
"Yeah, there's no stripes on my clothes. What about Teacher Chelsey?"
"No stripes."
"She has no stripes, either!"
"She has no stripes either!"
It was perfect. He modeled everything exactly like he would have in class, and he engaged in it on his own, I didn't prompt him to chime in until he decided he wanted to. What a cute little powerful demonstration for Chelsey on how easy it can be to keep the kiddos engaged. :)
All y'all can continue to be jealous.
Ender's Game is paying off!
Looking back, my blog recently has been so introspective! And as fun as that is for me, probably about now would be a great time for something lighter. Time for a China story!
This one is from March 17th! St. Patrick's Day :)
We have a slightly different set up student-wise than when I was in Nanlang. In Nanlang, there were 9 children total. Two in the youngest group, four in the middle and three in the oldest, and the three of us teachers taught all of them. Here in Xiaolan, there are 26 in the youngest, 26 in the middle, and 27 in the oldest. Three of our teachers are dedicated to just teaching the youngest kids (ages 3-4) and the other six teachers teach all of the middle/older kids (ages 4-6). Each class has 8 or 9 kids in it, and all of the kids are awesome, particularly our older kids.
In the older class, we have some really awesome speakers. My story today comes from one sweetheart named Jimmy. I actually started out the semester not liking him a ton (he thought it would be fun to squish up my face. I thought otherwise), but he grew on me really quickly! He's a good little kid. Very smart and considerate-- as soon as he realized I don't like the face smushing, he stopped-- and he wants to be a good kid, so he'll obey you and follow the rules adamantly.
Well on St. Patrick's Day, I was sitting in his class watching Chelsey teach, and she was handing out token bags to all the kids. They each have their own token bag that has their name on it, and as the kids get stickers, a lot of them like to decorate their bags with said stickers. One girl, Lucia, didn't have her token bag. Which is weird, we're the ones who keep them, so it was just MIA, and it actually had been since the day before. I looked around and couldn't find it, so we were just taking the token bag of one girl who hadn't been here in a while and flipping her name tag over and letting Lucia use it for the day.
I was writing Lucia's name on the paper and decorating it a little, drawing the four suits of a deck of cards on it, and Jimmy would turn around to watch me. He kept saying, "Lucia token bag snow," and I'm sitting here like, "Yeah, this is Lucia's token bag, and sure, I suppose that club looks a like a snowflake." Haha. But he was so insistent! Lucia token bag, snow! I mean, dang Jimmy, I'm not a bad artist, this is clearly not a snowflake.
When I was satisfied with the name, I handed the token bag to Lucia, and Jimmy was still stressing out a bit, not paying attention to class at all, and at this point he tries telling Chelsey. "Lucia token bag! Snowman! Token bag!" Chelsey's trying to teach a class and her class has nothing to do with snowmen, so she's a touch confused and just writes Jimmy off. "Yes, that's Lucia's token bag today," and moves on. Which is totally understandable, I don't fault her at all. But he seemed a little disheartened, and I realized it was probably because he knows where her token bag is and we're just not listening well enough. As his attention shifted back to class, I left them and went looking through all our props, looking for anything that might be vaguely snowman related. Bags, hats, puppets... nothing.
After our first class with the middle and older kids, we have a water break, so I took that time to find Jimmy. At this point, he has already moved on from whatever he was trying to say, and he was just enjoying his break. But I grabbed Chelsey to come listen and then pulled him aside and got down on his level--
"Hey Jimmy, where is Lucia's token bag?" He looks at down at his.
"Token bag."
"Yeah, but where's Lucia's?" and I find her across the room and point at her. "Do you know?" He nods and starts thinking. After a few seconds, I start getting nervous. I know this kid knows, but his silence is unsettling. He communicated with me, I understood him! Just not well enough, and I'm starting to lose conviction that he knows.
Then he pops his head up. "Yesterday, a snowman bag."
I look up at Chelsey, "Do you have a snowman bag?"
She pauses for a second, "Yeah, I do! I had it yesterday!"
"Is it here?!"
"No it's back at the apartment."
I nod, "It's in there." And then I thanked Jimmy and he went back along his way.
It was the coolest. Later we went back to their apartment for a meeting and the first thing I did was make Chelsey check for the bag, and sure enough it was there. I was so proud, in part because this little kid had knowledge he needed to share in another language and he was able to, but also because no one else really seemed to think he would know or try to work with him. He's just a kid, right, barely 6 years old, what does he know?
But I was able to listen to him! I've read Ender's Game, I know how it is. And it was such a proud moment in my life to be able to work with this little genius. Bah! I love it.
Sometimes, my job is kinda cool. And now you can all be jealous.
This one is from March 17th! St. Patrick's Day :)
We have a slightly different set up student-wise than when I was in Nanlang. In Nanlang, there were 9 children total. Two in the youngest group, four in the middle and three in the oldest, and the three of us teachers taught all of them. Here in Xiaolan, there are 26 in the youngest, 26 in the middle, and 27 in the oldest. Three of our teachers are dedicated to just teaching the youngest kids (ages 3-4) and the other six teachers teach all of the middle/older kids (ages 4-6). Each class has 8 or 9 kids in it, and all of the kids are awesome, particularly our older kids.
In the older class, we have some really awesome speakers. My story today comes from one sweetheart named Jimmy. I actually started out the semester not liking him a ton (he thought it would be fun to squish up my face. I thought otherwise), but he grew on me really quickly! He's a good little kid. Very smart and considerate-- as soon as he realized I don't like the face smushing, he stopped-- and he wants to be a good kid, so he'll obey you and follow the rules adamantly.
Well on St. Patrick's Day, I was sitting in his class watching Chelsey teach, and she was handing out token bags to all the kids. They each have their own token bag that has their name on it, and as the kids get stickers, a lot of them like to decorate their bags with said stickers. One girl, Lucia, didn't have her token bag. Which is weird, we're the ones who keep them, so it was just MIA, and it actually had been since the day before. I looked around and couldn't find it, so we were just taking the token bag of one girl who hadn't been here in a while and flipping her name tag over and letting Lucia use it for the day.
I was writing Lucia's name on the paper and decorating it a little, drawing the four suits of a deck of cards on it, and Jimmy would turn around to watch me. He kept saying, "Lucia token bag snow," and I'm sitting here like, "Yeah, this is Lucia's token bag, and sure, I suppose that club looks a like a snowflake." Haha. But he was so insistent! Lucia token bag, snow! I mean, dang Jimmy, I'm not a bad artist, this is clearly not a snowflake.
When I was satisfied with the name, I handed the token bag to Lucia, and Jimmy was still stressing out a bit, not paying attention to class at all, and at this point he tries telling Chelsey. "Lucia token bag! Snowman! Token bag!" Chelsey's trying to teach a class and her class has nothing to do with snowmen, so she's a touch confused and just writes Jimmy off. "Yes, that's Lucia's token bag today," and moves on. Which is totally understandable, I don't fault her at all. But he seemed a little disheartened, and I realized it was probably because he knows where her token bag is and we're just not listening well enough. As his attention shifted back to class, I left them and went looking through all our props, looking for anything that might be vaguely snowman related. Bags, hats, puppets... nothing.
After our first class with the middle and older kids, we have a water break, so I took that time to find Jimmy. At this point, he has already moved on from whatever he was trying to say, and he was just enjoying his break. But I grabbed Chelsey to come listen and then pulled him aside and got down on his level--
"Hey Jimmy, where is Lucia's token bag?" He looks at down at his.
"Token bag."
"Yeah, but where's Lucia's?" and I find her across the room and point at her. "Do you know?" He nods and starts thinking. After a few seconds, I start getting nervous. I know this kid knows, but his silence is unsettling. He communicated with me, I understood him! Just not well enough, and I'm starting to lose conviction that he knows.
Then he pops his head up. "Yesterday, a snowman bag."
I look up at Chelsey, "Do you have a snowman bag?"
She pauses for a second, "Yeah, I do! I had it yesterday!"
"Is it here?!"
"No it's back at the apartment."
I nod, "It's in there." And then I thanked Jimmy and he went back along his way.
It was the coolest. Later we went back to their apartment for a meeting and the first thing I did was make Chelsey check for the bag, and sure enough it was there. I was so proud, in part because this little kid had knowledge he needed to share in another language and he was able to, but also because no one else really seemed to think he would know or try to work with him. He's just a kid, right, barely 6 years old, what does he know?
But I was able to listen to him! I've read Ender's Game, I know how it is. And it was such a proud moment in my life to be able to work with this little genius. Bah! I love it.
Sometimes, my job is kinda cool. And now you can all be jealous.
Aug 31, 2014
Just gotta find a place for Axle.
I have a quick personal story to tell. I'm not sure who all I've told it to before, but I know not a lot of people have heard it, so. Here it is, don't judge. It's important to me.
When I first went to China, I left late August. Every month, we had a vacation, and in November we spent our vacation in Beijing. I had 3 other teachers I was with, and we spent virtually all of our time together. Since it was just the 4 of us, and we were required to go places in groups of at least 2, we almost always went out with all of us together.
My group went to Beijing with the girls from 2 other schools. We had the Xiaolan girls and the Da..kdjf I never remember their city's name... haha. Anyway, while we were there, I wanted to buy Scooter her souvenir. Based on a gift her teacher had given her before, I decided to buy her a traditional Chinese hat. It was one of our last nights in Beijing and this market, I went off with some of the other girls to look around and see what I could find. I did end up with a pretty sweet hat that I was very excited about and continued to wear the rest of the night.
Since all of us had split up, though, we agreed to meet back at this one random place at a certain time. When I saw Anna (my head teacher), I ran to show her my cool find.
"Look what I bought for my sister! It's her souvenir!"
Anna gives me a weird look. "Cool, it's nice."
"... what?"
"Nothing. I just don't think I've ever actually heard you laugh before."
I am so excited to go to China again. I really just can't wait. About 5 more months, and then I get to go back to my favorite place I've ever called home. I grew so much in China, and learned a lot. I made some great friends and learned to love an entire people. I look forward to being a leader to new people and possibly getting to see some of my old students. I'm trying to learn some Chinese sign language (I've got 6 words down) and I'm going to be brushing up on my Chinese, at the very latest when classes are over. This is going to be such a great experience.
And I hope that the previous experiences I've had will help me to connect with my teachers and help them have a great time.
When I first went to China, I left late August. Every month, we had a vacation, and in November we spent our vacation in Beijing. I had 3 other teachers I was with, and we spent virtually all of our time together. Since it was just the 4 of us, and we were required to go places in groups of at least 2, we almost always went out with all of us together.
My group went to Beijing with the girls from 2 other schools. We had the Xiaolan girls and the Da..kdjf I never remember their city's name... haha. Anyway, while we were there, I wanted to buy Scooter her souvenir. Based on a gift her teacher had given her before, I decided to buy her a traditional Chinese hat. It was one of our last nights in Beijing and this market, I went off with some of the other girls to look around and see what I could find. I did end up with a pretty sweet hat that I was very excited about and continued to wear the rest of the night.
Since all of us had split up, though, we agreed to meet back at this one random place at a certain time. When I saw Anna (my head teacher), I ran to show her my cool find.
"Look what I bought for my sister! It's her souvenir!"
Anna gives me a weird look. "Cool, it's nice."
"... what?"
"Nothing. I just don't think I've ever actually heard you laugh before."
I am so excited to go to China again. I really just can't wait. About 5 more months, and then I get to go back to my favorite place I've ever called home. I grew so much in China, and learned a lot. I made some great friends and learned to love an entire people. I look forward to being a leader to new people and possibly getting to see some of my old students. I'm trying to learn some Chinese sign language (I've got 6 words down) and I'm going to be brushing up on my Chinese, at the very latest when classes are over. This is going to be such a great experience.
And I hope that the previous experiences I've had will help me to connect with my teachers and help them have a great time.
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