Published November 11th, 2006 by Mliesie
Frustrations…..
Well, the ‘pipeman’ did come by and told me that it needn’t be fixed. As long as I don’t have another indoor fountain, nothing will be done. What can I say?
This week I kind of realised that the longer I’m here, the more common things get. Fortunately I’m still enough of a stranger to realise that, and when I got home I immediately wrote down some of the things that I’ve already gotten used to or that seem quite ‘normal’.
Every morning, when I walk to work there are 2 things that still catch my attention. The first one, is the women that sweep the campus grounds in their high heels and very smart clothes. Not a leaf is left…..Very weird to someone who is used to walking out of her frontdoor and then discovering it’s almost impossible due to all the leaves that fell off the trees during the night! Secondly, the women that work in construction….. There is a lot of construction going on around and on the campus and very often there are women workers. Shovels in their hands, scooping up cement or mixing cement, wheeling around wheelbarrows, etc. I think it’s great, but it’s also something I somehow hadn’t expected here in China. Although, now that I get more (inside) information about history and people’s backgrounds, it seems very natural.
This week I spent some evenings at my department, due to extra curricular activities. I was surprised to see how many students were there, hanging around in their classrooms, studying, reading books or making posters for some events coming up, or having a meeting with one of the clubs they joined. On the one hand I felt somewhat sad as they preferred reading and studying in their calssrooms to doing that in their dorms;, on the other hand it felt okay, as the atmosphere was very positive and cheerful. It again made me realize how fortunate I am with my homey house!
By now you are probably wondering about the heading of thos post….”frustrations”…..Don’t get me strarted! My 2 biggest frustrations right now are teaching communicative methodology, which as Kate said, comes natural to us but is completely incomprehensibe for many of our students. I probably expect too much from them, I’m actually sure I do, and that’s part of my frustration. I want them to speak English and not Chinese, I want them to speak, and I want them to remember what we did before, without having to tell them explicitly!!! I know, I know, it’s too much…. My other frustration? GRRRRRRRRRRRRR, the staring of the people in the street and the constant “Hello!”, “Hello!”, “Helloooooooo!!”. It drives me nuts! à already stuck out my tongue to some people and most of the time I completely ignore all the others who keep yelling at me. But boy do I feel something bubbling inside of me…! Probably sounds like a really weird thing to you out there, but it really feels like you’re in the zoo, on the wrong side of the bars!
Despite of my frustrations I still like it here, don’t worry. Sorry to tell you I’m not coming back yet. I know you all paid these people to drive me crazy and get me back home as soon as possible, it was a waste of money…
Oh, and I haven’t told you about the biggest ‘bummer’ of this week yet…..My Chinese teacher has given up on me! I guess she couldn’t handle such an aweful student….Naah, just kidding. But unfortunately she got extra lessons in college, so she doesn’t have time to teach me anymore. I’m already looking for a new teacher, as I am not very good at selfstudy and I do want to be able to make conversation with the people in the street, in a couple of months from now. Whenever I go to the market, all the merchants are blabbering away and there’s nothing much sensible I can say back! Do you know what that feels like for someone who “LOOOOOOOOVES” to talk and make conversation? Exactly!
Well, I’m not going to bother you any longer with my frustrations. I’ll keep my eyes open for all the surprises that China still has up his/her/its (?) sleeve for me, and I’ll keep you ‘posted’!
Zai jian!