Ric Swenson on mon 11 jun 07
The server dosen't seem to be working well now, but I will try this postin=
g again, just in case....
Hi all, A Chinese conversation is reflective in nature. Even though my Man=
darin is still quite rudimentary, I've noticed that in listening to Chinese=
conversations many phrases are repeated back to the speaker by the listene=
r and then verified by the speaker ("hao da" (ok) or Du wei (yes). Having=
a friend translate a large menu verbatum has helped me order in restaurant=
s but I seldom eat alone. Usually a fellow teacher or some students go wit=
h me when I go out to "food alley". ...a small street near campus where you=
can find all sorts of good ethnic delicacies. A good meal for two might c=
ost as much at 10-20 yuan ( $1.00 USD =3D 7.7 yuan RMB)Children's Day last =
weekend. I took pictures of my favorite kindergarten students ( the one's w=
ho come to class in a special group on Sat and Sun mornings) and gave them =
8 X 10 color photos. They loved them and cost me little to have printed. =
Two fellow teachers ( Art History teacher and thermal energy teacher (kiln =
theory) and I went to visit the local orphanage and brought them games, boo=
ks and food and some clothing and towels, etc. They live in a clean place,=
but most are hard to adopt out because they are teenagers....and the litt=
le ones are disabled. They loved our visit and I plan to go back to visit =
them when I can. About 20 total kids there. A hard life, but they smile a =
lot anyway. This week the Chinese high schoolers had their big chance. 10 =
million took the college entrance exams. It might their only chance to make=
it big in life, so there is intense competition. The best will attend Pek=
ing U. or Tsinghua U in Beijing ( the Harvard and Princeton of China) other=
s will make it into lesser colleges, but still have much better job opportu=
nities than those that don't make the grade. The college entrance exams are=
now in their 30th year...since restarting in 1977 after the disaster of th=
e cult. revolution of 1966-76. Since then, 36 million have taken passing ma=
rks and graduated from institutions of higher learning. The numbers increas=
e each year, as the colleges grow and new ones are started. The weather her=
e can be described in two words now...birkenstocks and shorts. I've made fr=
iend with the Peking U. Prof. who is her studying 17th C. Porcelains of Jin=
gDeZhen. She is a wealth of expert knowledge and maybe the world's expert =
in her particular field of work. She shops Monday mornings at the antique =
fairs and can spot a real work from a fake in a nanosecond. Had to break do=
wn and buy tubes for my bike tires the other day...the bike is 30-40 years =
old and works fine, but the roads take their toll...so to speak. Cost me 24=
yuan for both tubes, installed. 3 down and four to go in the way of final =
tests to be given. Where does the time go? I was stopped this morning by on=
e of the WVU profs...herding a group of students to the JCI / WVU studios h=
ere....He said he was in Anchorage recently and saw some of my pieces in th=
e Anchorage Museum. I was pleased and delighted to hear that two of the ha=
lf dozen pieces I have there are in a current show. Also he saw the work o=
f fellow Alaskans Alex Combs and Al Tennet. I share this computer with sev=
eral other teachers and some grad students. Rashid (Robbie ) is a ceramic =
Engineer from Usbekastan and Sy is a ceramics major from Myanmar. There is=
a program this term for VietNamese students and also for Koreans. Korean g=
irls are very noisy.... but funny too. Just watched TITANIC in Chinese. Hm=
mmmm. glad I knew the plot. The mosquitoes here are very small...but pack a=
big punch. Nothing like the giant mosquitos in Alaska. I use a small ele=
ctric odor device to keep them in check. I have 5 (count 'em FIVE) scrabble=
games for my students to use. They love the game and even the three Korea=
n high school boys that I tutor on the weekends have come to love the game.=
They know little English...so it helps them develop their vocab. I lugge=
d the games from Atlanta to China in my luggage. The customs people were ve=
ry curious and I had to try to explain their use when I passed through Shan=
gHai . GO SPURS! First game was theirs!! I was fortunate to live in San A=
ntonio during their 2003 and 2005 winning seasons. Ginobli is my favorite=
NBA star. Most Chinese, of course, favor Yao Ming...understandably. NBA =
is BIG stuff here. They know all the players and love the game. As I sit =
here, I can hear about 50 players out on the court in front of this dorm...=
and it's HOT now. I don't know how they can play in this 90 degree heat...=
but they do...until well after dark most nights. Zao shang hao is GOOD MORN=
ING. Just learned that one today. Mostly folks just say Ni Hao (literally=
"you good"?) I pay 6 yuan for 10 liters of fresh drinking water, lasts me =
about 3-4 weeks. People don't like cold water or iced water here. They beli=
eve it is bad for the system and if taken with a meal, causes the oil in th=
e food to harden and cause digestive problems. Hey...who know? True? You =
are always offer hot water or tea when you visit an office or someone's hom=
e. They also believe if you walk backward that you will lose more weight. =
I see many walking on the school's athletic track backward. It's a differe=
nt culture in some strange and curious ways, but who knows? Maybe they are =
right. About 400 days until the Beijing Olympics - 08-08-2008. JingnDeZhen =
Ceramics Institute is spending 100,000 RMB to send a ceramics show to Beiji=
ng now. I saw them loading the trucks this AM. Teachers and students works.=
The crates are works of art in themselves. I bought a couple beautiful ne=
w handmade bamboo large baskets the other day. 10 yuan each. Craftsmanship=
at it's best for a totally utilitarian object...totally functional. Three=
foot long curved handles. They are used in pairs with a yoke over the shou=
lders to carry fruits/vegetables/babies in the rice fields, or even to catc=
h fish in the river, etc... Saw a 'five step snake' the other day....it bit=
es you.... and then you live for five steps....yikes. I never did like sna=
kes much. Transportation of greenware pottery and sculpture here is almost =
always done by yoke and platforms over the shoulders of a workman...or on a=
small two wheeled cart...pulled by a workman. Slowly and carefully from ma=
ker to glazer/decorator. Finished wares are packed in straw and loaded in c=
arts or small pickup trucks and carried to retailers/shippers. I saw a man =
today pulling two six foot high sculptures of some Chinese mythical figure =
in greenware up the street. I am continually amazed. Joey Zhao, a recent gr=
ad in sculpture from this institution has been accepted at Carbondale and w=
ill leave soon for the states. It took him 7 months to get his visa. It's =
not easy for Chinese to leave P.R. of China yet. I wish him the best! I wil=
l go to Beijing in July to spend a month at Peking U. ( I can rent a dorm r=
oom there for 100 yuan per month...as a teacher in China.) I will travel f=
rom there to the west after I have spent a month absorbing The Great Wall, =
Forbidden City, etc, etc... This is the year of the PIG. I understand it i=
s a very good year to have a baby in China. I see a great number of pregna=
nt women in the streets. In the streets, daily I see huge dump trucks carry=
ing clay and petunce (spar) from the mines to the clay makers shops. Many t=
rucks of prepared clay also transverse the roads. This week is DRAGON BOAT =
FESTIVAL. There is a myth about a famous poet/writer who was killed and du=
mped in the river. The people were outraged by his death and in tribute thr=
ew rice in the river so the fish would eat the rice instead of his body. N=
ow there are special rice concoctions wrapped in corn leaves that are eaten=
during this time in his honor. Boat races are held in the river in JingDeZ=
hen tomorrow. The strawberry fields that we passed all this term on the bus=
going to the new campus have suddenly been transformed into rice paddies. =
Water buffalos pull the plows through the paddies and rice is planted quic=
kly. A 100 day cycle of plant to harvest. I love the patterns of the field=
s and the ever changing green color that display as the crops mature to gol=
den yellow in the Fall. Housing starts to encroche on the rice fields in m=
ost places where urban meets rural. They are building a new hospital near t=
he New Campus. Scheduled to open in 2008...the sign says. Lots of differen=
t info. here. Stream of conciousness? Happy potting! Ric =20
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Terrance Lazaroff on tue 19 jun 07
Ric;
Appreciate your newsletter. Keep it comming. A Sanbao fellow. Terrance
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