Kerry Bryan is fine?

So meet the other classes I have....
1st photo is my Tuesday 8:00 class
2nd is my Wednesday 8:00 class
3rd is my Wednesday 1:30 class
4th is my Wednesday 3:30 class
5th is my Thursday 10:10 class
6th is my Thursday 1:30 class
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So did the title of this post catch your eye? Hopefully so...I had my students do some informal evaluations of me this week and I asked five questions. So I did my best to find one great answer that caught my eye....Enjoy

Question 1:
What is the best thing about Freshman Oral English?
Best Answer:
"I like listening to you and talking with you because you are smart, kind and fine."

Question 2:
What do you not like about Freshman Oral English?
Best Answer:
"Speak English only" (I'm sorry student...the rules are speak English only...tough break)
Another good answer for this one is..."You can take us outside for class" (I am not allowed too...I would love to go outside for classes when it is sunny...sucks that I can't)

Question 3:
What are some things you have learned in Freshman Oral English?
Best Answer:
"I learn a lot. Maybe many. Just spilling out my brain. :) The way of speaking English, the food's difference Chinese and American and so on." (Yes...spilling the brain...I did not teach that...ps that is a word for word statement straight from the evaluation)

Question 4:
Do you think your English is better now?
Best Answer:
"Yes, of course. My ORAL English is more unadulterated than before" (I had to look up what unadulterated meant)

Question 5:
What can I (Kerry) do to make class better next year (term)?
Best Answer:
"Oh, Dear Kerry,
Don't worry about this. You did well, we all thank you for your effort and we all love you very much. As our first foreign teacher, you're great." (Only if my student could speak like this)

For question 5, many students wrote, ""You had better do____." Normally you had better teach us more slang and idioms. Or you had better learn more chinese for us. (I had better.....just funny to me)


Today one of my female students (One of my top 10 students for sure) stood up in front of class and have me a five minute speech on how the class has loved my class and how they are happy I taught them and put so much into teaching them....it really made me happy and made me all warm inside....it was good words to end my first semester of teaching on...

But......................................
I leave for Hong Kong in less than two days....and Bangkok in less than 9 days...gotta love adventure (I'm traveling the world TK)
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Here are gifts from my classes:
1st photo is a gift from my Tuesday 8:00 class(Santa Hat with Tails)
2nd is gifts from my Wednesday 1:30 class (All kinds of Chinese food)
3rd is gifts from my Wednesday 3:30 class (Homemade card and food)
4th is gifts from Thursday 10:10 class (Giant Beijing Opera Mask and Handmade Paper Flowers)
5th is gifts from my Thursday 1:30 class (Beijing Opera Ashtray and Lighter, Candy and Stuff)

Meet my Monday Classes...

I have nine different classes, and I only see each class once a week at two hour intervals. This is my eleventh week of teaching, so I decided that you needed to see my students. So, the three classes about are my Monday classes. The first one is my 8:00-9:50 class, the second is my 10:10-12:00 class, and the last one is my 1:30-3:30 class. All nine of my classes are completely different but each of them are very fun for the most part. My Monday 10:10 class seems to never understand me so I have a hard time getting across to them but they have come through by doing really well on both of the oral examinations. The scores they got blew me away, cause they never talk in class, they never ask questions and are scared to ask questions. Most classes do not ask questions. They will sit there confused and do something wrong before they ask a question. This is because in their other classes, the teachers lecture the entire two hours. There is very little student feedback. In our classes we want to have the students talking and mingling to improve their English. Oh well...hopefully next semester the students will be brave.
Last week we had final exams....wow...my classes did really good on the exam..yeah I had a few students who did not pass but that is normal. But all of my students passed the semester but some of them came very close to having to retake it.
So this week of teaching is a supplemental week. No set lesson to teach the students...but with in being Christmas, I am teaching the meaning of Christmas. I am comparing our Christmas Celebration to the Chinese Spring Festival (Chinese New Year which is on Jan. 26 in China). So please remember me you do that who closing your eyes thing and talking to the man upstairs. Lift me up so that I will be able to remember the important facts that need to be said and I teach a new concept to my students....cause it really is very interesting. Some students say this story is very cool so I hope it might lead to more discussion.

So...my classes have given me gifts for Christmas...which is sad cause I have nothing to give them in return..so in return they have asked me to sing them a song...so I did. I had to do something so I decided to sing Silent Night....they loved it. They will probably never say if I am a bad singer cause this whole country is so generous and accepting of everything. But here are some thing my class has given me. The first picture is a Beijing Opera Silverware set...with American Silverware and Chopsticks...they said they got me this because they know that I love to eat...they listen to every little detail about me. The second picture is a basketball, man scarf, fruit, jello and weird food. On the basketball is a picture of my favorite NBA team...the SAN ANTONIO SPURS....all my student know they I LOVE THE SPURS and that Tim Duncan is my favorite player...so they got me this basketball. Only if I have something in return to give them...but I have roughly 225 students so I would be broke after that...More posts of my students later this week.

Holla

Early Christmas

"Shh, it's Kerry."

That is what my students said when I was a few steps away from entering my 8:00 class this morning. I should have noticed something was going on when two of my students were walking outside. I asked where they were going and they said, "We are going to get a camera." I wasn't worried about it because there was still ten minutes before class started. So I am getting my laptop set up for class, I am using a laptop this week because we are doing final exams and the exam is on my laptop, and one of my students said, "Kerry, our class got something for you." I thought they were doing some kind of joke to see what I would say. But no, they seriously got me a gift. I had no idea what it would be. So I get this bag and inside is a huge card and a Chinese flag. Wow, I was really excited. I asked this class how much a flag was and if the found a cheap one to please let me know. But they got it for me as a Christmas gift, along with a Pop-Up Christmas card that all my students signed that said:

Dear Kerry,
Thank you for teaching. We all love you very much. Best wishes for you. May you be happy and everything goes well!
From Accounting Three
December 2008

I have been wanting to get both an American Flag and a Chinese flag to hang up in my living room. When I go to Thailand, I would like to buy a Thailand flag as well. I probably wont hang it in my room but just to have it. Maybe that will be a collection. When I go to another country I would buy the flag for that country.

After this class, I took a good two and a half hour nap and woke up to catch the end of a really exciting Spurs and Mavericks game. When I woke up there was 1:47 left in regulation and my Spurs were up 2. But it went into overtime and then a second overtime. Then the Spurs pulled out a big win. I was glad that I was able to catch that.

Only 10 more days until Hong Kong, 17 until Bangkok.

Merry Christmas

So, thanksgiving is over, and now it is time for Christmas. This is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, at least that is what a song says. I love the holidays, waking up at the crack of dawn with the family opening gifts, watching the lights on the tree blink (or chase or whatever your lights do). I am beginning to miss home, the family, the friends, the shopping, and most of all the food. But I will be going to Hong Kong for a few days to spent Christmas there then going to Bangkok on Dec 27th and will bring in 2009 in Thailand. I will be spending Christmas and New Years with some awesome people and I am really looking forward to it. I am getting messages from friends saying they wish I was home for the holidays and how they miss me and getting e-mails from Mom. But I am doing something with my life right now that I feel that I was supposed to do. I want to travel the world and this was a great starting point.

So during Thanksgiving lunch, they did a raffle for teachers to win a Christmas tree. I was one of the winners. So here is a picture by picture of my tree as it came together. Thanks to Ben and Christina for letting me borrow decorations and lights to put on my minature tree. As you can see, there are traditional American decorations but I decided that since my student gave me all the weird Chinese decorations, then why not put those on they tree. They way, when they visit again they will see that the decorations they gave to their foreign teacher(me) went to use. The students love the tree, I try to have it on before they come into my room, sometimes I forget so I turn it in when they come in. They like it alot, or so they say. I met with a student last week because I needed to get the right roster from him, but he told me the class had a vote to elect their favorite teacher. Well, I am very pleased to say that the class voted me as their favorite teacher. I asked him why, he said, "because when we come to class never know what to expect". He told me they love they I can make them laugh everytime. That is what I try to do cause in their other classes, the lessons are all teacher centered and that is extremely boring on a student. With two hour classes, students need to be provided with some sort of entertainment.

Cliques, or a social group, is something I really am not a fan of. I guess you can call me a floater cause I don't think I really am much of a one group kind of person. I mean, I do have a few people who are the guys/girls I love to hang out with but I love to hang out with different people from time to time. So I float from group to group, to try to take advantage of building relationships with those around me. But, here is my point. I have been told here that I fit it well and I provide so much to the group. Talking about the foreign faculty as a whole at Sias. Well, as of right now with the whole group, I feel like I provide nothing at all. I get the occasional text about volleyball and whatnot, but when it comes to exciting things, all I do is sit in my room or am with Andy and Lacy. Why would people tell me these things about being so great or whatever but they do not allow me to be much. Now I was invited by the different cliques here for their different trips over Thanksgiving and I was really excited to have been invited to those but I had to save money for Christmas and traveling so I did decline. But other things that happen, I feel like I invite myself. I have never really had to do that and it is kind of uncomfortable. One group here does a thing here once a week sometimes every other week and I usually get invited to that, but when I go to that the only thing they talk about are stories that took place last year. So I awkwardly sit there and listen to the stories that I have nothing to do with wishing I was able to provide some kind of input so I will give the occasional courtesy laugh. Sometimes the stories are really funny and I will laugh pretty hard about that. It just stinks that I was a late arrival to China cause trying to work yourself into a group that seems to already been sewn together is a very tough thing to do. I just want to provide something. Anyways...just something I have been dealing with for a few weeks now.

Hope you guys enjoyed this post...I know I am usually the happy person but sometimes a brothas gotta rant.

Holla

Thanksgiving Celebration

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family back in the USofA. I hope you were able to enjoy some delicious food and enjoy the time with your family. Thanksgiving here was very eventful....so much fun. Starting at 9:30 am we had an American Football tournament (I say American Football cause that is what I have to tell my students). This tournament was called The Turkey Bowl. We had four teams in the tournament so we only played two games. Both games we played came down to the wire...seriously..to the end. Our first game was tight the entire game, we went into overtime to take the win on a last second touchdown pass from Steve to Joel as time expired. We won by one score and went on to play in the championship game. This game was not as close as the first game at first. We went into halftime of this game with a 4-2 touchdown lead. The second half, our opponents made a push for a comeback. They made their come back and took the lead at one point but with a little more than a minute remaining in the game the score was knotted up 6-6. We picked the defense apart to get into close range of winning the game. It was down to the final play of the game, time was all out. Once again Steve throws a bullet of a pass really low to Joel who is double covered. Joel goes to his knees and makes the catch. We win the game and The Turkey Bowl Championship. It was so much fun.

After The Turkey Bowl was Thanksgiving day lunch. Sias Cafe, a restaurant on campus here, prepared a delicious Thanksgiving feast for the foreign faculty. Yes a feast, they had provided s much food. Pasta, rice, potatoes (baked and mashed), gravy, pork, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, beef and most of all TURKEY. It was so delicous and I ate with some really awesome people. Andy and Lacy, Steve and Rachael and Joel and Amanda. Yes, three married couples...but they are a blast to hang out with. Took pictures with people, I tried to charge my camera while we were playing football but the charger only works when it wants to work. So yesterday it did not want to work, but I got about four pictures before the camera died so I will post them later today. Then I had to do the traditional Thanksgiving Nap....oh I slept for a few hours and woke up about thirty minutes before dinner. So I took a shower then went down and had some mexican food in our cafeteria. It too was really good, Thanksgiving Day was just a day of good food.

After dinner Andy came and found me to tell me something and was going to dinner so I told him I would go with him but I would not eat. He said he was gonna go to HotPot so I knew it would be a struggle to not eat there. I love the noodles at this place, they are some of the best noodles I have ever tasted. So I gave into my desires and ate some of the noodles, which let to eating some of the other food which led to me eating too much. Oh well...we finished eating there and came back.

Something that I had said at lunch reminded Racheal of a line from Napolean Dynamite. So she asked if we wanted to watch Napolean Dynamite. So we all said yes, so when we got back from HotPot the people from lunch went to Andy and Lacys room to watch Napolean Dynamite. The movie was funny and we had fun watching the movie. Then after the movie I went down stairs and talked to mom for a while on skype and Jenn got on for a little while. Then after talking on there for a long time I came up to my room and read sports stuff then went to bed.

That was my Thanksgiving day so hopefully yours was very eventful just as mine was...

Holla

Time with students usually means laughter

I have only one class on Tuesday at 8:00...my favorite class by far. They are funny, they get my humor and everyone of the participate...well maybe one or two will slack off...but they are by far my best. After class this morning some students wanted to come visit. They made an appointment yesterday for today at 10:00. I enjoy meeting with big groups of students as opposed to just two or three. It is a lot more fun and it opens up more conversation. Yes in a large group there are still those who do not talk and just sit back and watch and occasionally laugh but the fact they are understanding what I say (or so I think) makes my day so much better. Today, I thought there would be a mixed gender group....boy was I wrong. Only girls today...nice of them to be exact. Well eight because one of them showed the others my room and then left. But eight girls and me...I would have thought it would be really odd to try and entertain these girls for however long they would stay. It was the opposite...it was very easy. I always get this question..."Teacher..do you have a gf?" So I tell them.."No..I do not have a girlfriend." Today I got this reply, "Teacher, we are all single."....How the crap do I reply to that??? Oh well...we moved. We talked about normal things...culture, food my family. My students love to talk about my neice. I also love to talk about her too. I have pictures that I show them and they love to look at them and laugh. I think it is my favorite topic with my students.

I had lunch with some students today...one student was mine and one was my friend Heathers. They took me to this noodle place. It was very good. I was impressed with the stuff we talked about. In fact...after we ate I wanted to buy a China flag to hang in my room...we found a flag but they were asking way too much for it...30 yuan for a flag that looked awful...the students tried to bargain for me but they would not go down...oh well..then we walked back to SIAS. On the way back one of the girls started singing Amazing Love....I was shocked. She then started talking about that song and how she had no idea what it meant. But the thing is...she downloaded it on her computer. (If you don't know the words to Amazing Love please look them up) But anyways...I told her about the meaning of the song and how we as believers view the song. She then told me they she, along with the other student does not believe in Jsus or Bdda h...but the fact that she began to sing that song opened up a door for me to kind of step into. So, her singing Amazing Love allowed me to do a little bit of menistree...

I just wanted to tell you that story because I thought it was really cool...anyways..I know I misspelled words in this thing....It was intentional...I will try and get some pictures of these students up asap

Not a bad weekend

So...this weekend has been relaxing and all that good stuff. PS...I love three day weekends...one of the best things about working here at SIAS University. Friday I had to wake up early to go to the PSB but then we got back to eat lunch and shortly afterward I took a nap. 4 hours I slept...it was ridiculous...I missed some good volleyball because I slept so long..oh well. So I had dinner that night in Peter Hall (where I live) with some cool peeps. I ask everyone what they were doing that night and the girls were doing a ladies night while the guys were doing a guys night. I was looking forward to it. We met at 7:00 in the lobby to do whatever. We were gonna go watch a movie but instead we went to this little park down the street to try and drive some go carts. They were not open...but this little park had other things to do. They had these balloons on a wall and a little bb guns to shoot them with. It was really cheap and pretty entertaining. I tore them poor balloons up. Steve, a guy I was with, decided to shoot me while we were doing this. Right in the butt. Glad those things were not powerful. Then we went to these arcade type thing where they had bigger guys to shoot targets. Some targets were stationary and some were moving. It was too expensive...even for here. So Steve, who was working really hard to bargain, asked if we could take the bb guys in the woods and shoot each other. They guy could not speak English but he knew what we were talking about but would not allow us to do it. Steve kept asking him and the little kid who was there was laughing at us. So then we left the park and found this little arcade. Not much to do, or so we thought. We played a moto racing game, which by the way I suck at, so after that we left. Walking back I bought a beanie for 15 yuan. Oh, when they were telling me about the price I thought the lady was saying 50. I happily declined that. I was even doing numbers on my hand. 5-0? I kept asking and she was saying yes. But what she was really saying was 15...but if she was saying 15 why would you say yes to 5-0? Oh well...so I got a nice beanie for 15 yuan. Then we guys went up to see the new restaurant they build across from SIAS. It is really nice and fancy in there but the English is only in Chinese. So if I go I will have to go with a student to eat. We then left there and was gonna go play some pool. The place was way too smoky. It was worse than bars and pubs in the states...so we left. I called Andy to see if he wanted to join us...he wanted to go to an arcade. We are going there and it is the same exact arcade. We thought the place sucked the first time. We then sat down at a machine. We did not know the first time we came here that you had to turn the video game on yourself. It was awesome. Each machine had all these old school games we used to play as a kid. It was elementary school all over again. Such a good time enjoying the kid in us...We then left the arcade and went to a massage place. I wasnt gonna get one but I thought about it and decided I could do one. I got a back massage and man it felt so good. The girl did a good job on my back then she massaged my head and some of my face...man...it was wonderful. Oh girl did wonderful. Then we called it a night and came back to Peter Hall...oh course I took a 4 hour nap that day so I was up real late.

Saturday was a just chill day. I did all my laundry including all my dirty clothes, sweaters/hoodies and my bedding. I love when I get to sleep on a bed with clean sheets. Always a good feeling. Did not do to much after that. Went to dinner at Charlies with Shea, Matt, Gabe and Sarah Willson. Then came back and Sarah Suttles Joined us for either a game or movie. We decided to play Guesstures. It was pretty fun. After that I just chilled in my room and looked a flights to Hong Kong and Thailand to see what would be cheaper since I need to get my visa done. I think I am going to get my visa done in Thailand. I am really excited about it too.

Today...allergies/sinuses killed me today. I did not go to Power Hour this morning and I did not go to Kid Castle either. But I attempted to play volleyball with the others here. It went well until the sun went down. It was too dark. Went to dinner afterwards with Joe, Coral, Jared, Heather, Kim, Ole, Kat, Twomey, and Becky. I had never been to this place before but it was pretty good. I love tang cu li ji (sweet and shower pork), I only know the chinese name cause some of my students wrote it on my board in my living room. But we had that with our meal. So so good. Then I came back to lesson plan and that did not take long. But ESPN Australia was showing NBA Access with Ahmad Rashad so I worked on my lesson plan and watched some TV. Now I am finished with my lesson plan and all I have to do is do a chart with the V sound. This week we are teaching freshman about Dr. Visits. and I am gonna teach the V sound this week.

Anyways, gonna make my chart and chill for the rest of the night.

Holla

Beautiful Days and Visa Issues

So...I was supposed to go to Hong Kong this past week to get my visa done for the rest of the year. I was ready to go (I think). I was dreading going to Hong Kong because that place is expensive, or so I've been told. I was probably gonna take a train there and possibly fly back or maybe a train both ways. That is why I did not wanna go...because it takes about 27 hours by train to get from Zhengzhou to Hong Kong. But on Thursday (last week) I got a message saying not to buy train tickets yet. Why? I went to talk to this lady who sent this message and she said it is possible that I would be able to get the visa I have now extended 30 more days....Wow, I thought that would be wonderful. So Friday (last week) I get a message from her. "We got approved for the extension."....I was extremely excited. Now I can take care of the visa for good over the winter holiday.

Last weekend I went to Zhengzhou to do some shopping. I needed to get a few things but ended up not getting so much. I got some candles (Vanilla), bathroom things and some apple juice. Man I love apple juice....its so delicursh (that's how most students here say delicious)...I still have a little bit left so I need to get some again soon. I wanted to get a beanie or two but I could not find one that I liked. Well I did find one that I like but it was too expensive. Also in Zhengzhou, we had lunch and this Brazilian BBQ restaurant. This place was soooooo gooooooood....They have buffet items you can get but they also have these waiters go table to table with slabs of meat on swords. When they stop at your table, you can get meat from them. You have tweezers type things to hold on to the meat as they cut it off the sword. There are so many different types of meats...chicken wings, pork, ribs, sirloin, and rib-eye...just to name a few....this place is ALL YOU CAN EAT.....man I tore up some Brazilian BBQ...

This past week of classes were really good. Our topic was Food, Recreation and Entertainment....For the food they would do a skit after we compared American Style and China Style Restaurants. The skits were usually really funny..sometimes not so funny. But many times, the group who would do the American style restaurant, they would order food such as a Hamburger or Steak...or some kind of food that I would love to eat soon...Oh well, I think I can wait until June 2009 for a juicy steak at home (hint hint mom) But when they would order their fake food my mouth would seriously salivate....its all good...

Kid Castle on Tuesday night was pretty good. I taught happy birthday AGAIN...I just taught happy birthday two weeks ago here at SIAS and I was tired of that song...seriously...So I had to teach happy birthday two more times...Oh well...the kids are funny and hopefully they enjoyed it....



This past week we had three really beautiful days in a row. It was awesome. Blue skies, mountains and most importantly...sun. Here are a few pictures...you might think this is lame but its rare to have one day like this here...In the second picture the sun is so bright I can not keep my eyes open...crazy...then the sun setting behind the mountains...



Last night I went with Andy, Lacy and George to eat some ghetto hot pot (sorry Andy and Lacy...I jacked your pictures)...Let me explain hot pot to ya...Hot Pot is a place where you have a pot in the middle of your table boiling. You can buy vegetables and stuff to put into the water to cook and you also get thin slices of raw meat that you put into the pot to let cook. It does not take it too long to cook. Last night we had tofu, sliced potatoes and potato noodles, regular noodles and various veggies. Last time I had this place we only had one flavor..just the regular. This time we had a divider in our bowl...one said was regular and one was spicy. I was very excited because I love me some spicy food. So there was this ball thing (the brown thing beside my mouth in that photo) that was in the spicy side...So I get my chopsticks and grab the ball...blow on it a little and shove it in my mouth. Wow...I was on fire...I don't think I have ever had anything so spicy in my life. It was almost unbearable to me. But I hate more spicy stuff even though I was tearing up after the first thing I ate. George, however, tore up the spicy, I threw in the white towel eventually but he is a soldier. He kept tearing but that spicy food. I had to stop cause I was in too much pain.

Today I had to go back to Zhengzhou to the PSB (Public Security Bureau..I think)...Like I said early my visa got extended another 30 days so I had to go to the PSB today and answer a few questions. It wasn't bad at all...but it was a little cold in there.

Anyways...that has been my past week...so hopefully you enjoyed it...maybe I will start posting more ofter

Holla

Kid Castle

So I started a new job this Tuesday teaching English to children ages 5-12. The first day was a blast and went very smooth. When I teach the small child I am given flashcards to help the kids learn letters, numbers and pictures. When I teach the older kids I do not use flashcards. On Tuesday I taught the 5-7 year old children the numbers 15-19, meal names and a few other things. I taught the 8-10 year old kids a few fruits but how to initiate and end a conversation with a friend in English. For example:
Kid 1: Hello Kerry
Kid 2: Hey Korey
Kid 1: How are doing doing?
Kid 2: I'm fine. How are you?
Kid 1: I'm doing great. Thank you.
Kid 2: OK see you
Kid 1: See you later

On today (Friday) I taught the 5-7 year old kids the letters x, y and z and also box, yo-yo and zoo. For the 8-10 year old kids I was asked to tell the stories the whole time. Do not forget the classes are 40 minute long...well it is not that long but I had to tell different stories for 40 minutes. Kids can not sit still and listen for 40 minutes. So they talked and I did not let it bother me. I told the store of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, My trip from Texas to Sias, Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs. I have not heard to told those stories in years so I was trying to drag them out as long as possible. Oh well. So I told stories for about 35 minutes and after wards the guy who would help me/translate for me told me to play a game using the stories. Seriously? I had to make up a game on the spot for these kids to answer questions when only one or two might have listened to me...or maybe three. So a ball rolled and hit me in the foot so I picked it up to put it back...NO...I used the ball for my game...I had the kids sit in a circle and I would ask a question then I would toss the ball to one of the students and they would answer. So glad that ball rolled out. It was lame but it got the job done.

Tomorrow I am going shopping with many of the teachers here at Sias at Zhengzhou. Zhengzhou is maybe an hour away from Sias but I need to buy a few things. I want to buy a few beanies since I left mine in Center, Texas like an idiot. Oh well. Hopefully I can can find some nice/cool beanies tomorrow and also to eat some good food.

Anyways...it is 1:46 am here on Saturday morning so I am going to try and get some sleep...oh yeah...tonight is the last night if will be cold inside my room. Our heat gets turned on tomorrow so it should be a wonderful day. We are doing a progressive housewarming party tomorrow night and some people have volunteered to make food and host things in their room while some just go around and check things out and eat some food. I am one of the ones just chilling going to check things out. It should be fun....

Update...

So mid-term examinations are over and now back to teaching regular class topics. This week will be really fun because our topic is Birthdays. The functions we are teaching this week are extending an invitation, accepting an invitation and gratuity. I observed Sarah Suttles (a Sophomore Oral English Teacher) my first week at Sias and the topic that week was Birthdays. So I am probably going to be using her lesson because I liked it very much and the students responded well to it. We'll I have not posted in a while so I will tell you a few things about my past week or so. Culture week was a blast and European Day (my main day) went much much much better than I thought it would go. I was figuring it would be lame and not much but it was the opposite of both of those. Only in China will one be able to see me, Kerry Bryan, in a freakin kilt. Even though it was really weird to be in a kilt the people seemed to love it and most of my students say my performance (yes I did a Scottish dance with a girl I work with) and they said they loved it. We also did games where the countries we represented (Scotland, Germany, Spain and Greece) would do an olympics type things and have students come and particpate. I am pretty sure, in fact I know, that my athelete was the best. Even if Josh, who represented Greece, could not say her name right she still performed at a high level. But overall, it was an amazing week. This past week I have been giving Oral English Exams. It was boring at times and entertaining at times. I really enjoyed hearing some of the unique answers I got to some of my questions and got really annoying at hearing "My English is very poor teacher I am sorry". Oh well, it is over now. I have roughly 225 students so hearing the same answer to some of the questions over and over got old very fast. Yesterday was an eventful day/night. Played volleyball that was a blast, by far the best volleyball I have seen in China. Then I went to dinner with Gabe and Sarah Willson (two girls I work with) and then went to a dvd store on campus. While at the store Gabe got a call from a student to come to this dance so I told her I would go but I didn't want to stay long cause I was invited by a few students but thought it would be very awkward with me and lots of students there. So she asked me to go and I went and the student who invited me say me and came and tried to teach me this line dance thing that was really not that much fun at all. But I tried to make the best of it. My students really enjoyed teaching me the dance but when 10 of your students are teaching you a dance it gets kind of annoying. Oh well, then we left the dance and came back and watched Get Smart. I thought the movie was very funny and I laughed a lot. As did the others I watched it with. But now I am about to go and play more volleyball in about 30 minutes and who knows what I will do tonight....

Holla...

Culture Week

This week is Culture Week, where we put on performances (dances, singing and skits/plays) to fit the culture of another country. The country I am representing is Europe. European Day is on Thursday and I am going to play the part of a Scottish Man. Yes, that means I will be wearing a kilt and I will be doing a Scottish dance with Becca McBee. So if you are here...bring your camera. It will for sure be a sight for sore eyes. I am also doing a game to represent the land of kilts...Caber Tossing. It is a Scottish game where you pick up a long piece of wood (Tree Trunk, Telephone Pole) and you toss it in the air. You have to make the "caber" go forwards and flip in the air for it to be a good toss. It is interesting but thankfully we are not throwing trees or telephone poles but a long piece of pvc pipe (that I cracked the first time I "Caber Tossed" it). I am also helping with Asia Day. Asia day is Tuesday and I will be using thick pieces of bamboo (banging it on the group and clapping to together) in a dance called Singkil Dance. The Singkil Dance is a dance done in The Phillipines and is a very interesting dance. As the week goes on I will include pictures from the things that take place.
Holla...

A Visit To Your Foreign Teacher

Our topic to teach this week is Visiting Your Foreign Teacher. So I have my students do a skit involving three questions. Question 1, What would you be interested in talking to your foreign teacher about? Question 2, What are things you should not talk about with your foreign teacher? Question 3, What is good etiquette when visiting your foreign teacher? For those of you that do not know, I am their foreign teacher. So I take answers from each group and write them on the board to help them with their skits, kind of like a guideline I guess. Question one you get the same answer every time, its always culture differences, food and sports/hobbies. One girl even said I would like to talk about your baby. I told all my classes I had a niece who is a few months old that is my brothers baby. She must have heard me wrong, I told her she was my brothers baby and she laughed. It was funny. For question 2, I usually get the same answers, such as Salary/Income, Secrets and Girlfriends/Boyfriends/Marriage. Question 3 I usually get a variety but some answers are the same. I usually get replys such as, call before you come and smile. One class said we should bring gifts, I laughed and joked with them how that was such a good answer. Then I told them you do not have to bring gifts when you come see me. One girl in that class has come to talk to me once last week and came again today. She took the gift thing seriously and brought me apples and these Chinese decorations. Her roommate, who is not a student of mine, came with her and she brought me some stuff to make hot tea with. It was very sweet of them.

Here is a picture of the things they brought me:



















The stuff in the baggie is not drugs, its the stuff to make hot tea. I know it looks suspicious but it is safe. Hopefully it tastes good like it did at the Hot Tea place I went to at the Beijing Airport.

Anyways, I just wanted to share that little bit ya. Now I am gonna try and find something productive to do. HOLLA!!!

Second group of students

Today has been a good as, the my other days here at Sias have been. I went to class this morning from 8:00-9:50 with my first group then I came back here to meet with some of my students at 10:00 this morning. Yesterday when I spoke with my students it was a little awkward and dead. Today, however, was the complete opposite. I came into this meeting with nine students thinking it was going to be awkward and tedious. The meeting was really good and very enjoyable for me, and I hope the students I met with felt the same. They all had questions for me about different things and I was never asked the same question twice. They asked me about the difference between the cultures of America and China, they asked me about food, they asked what would I like to know more about of the Chinese culture. I had a few students here that were not my students but where friends of my students. They also had questions for me so I answered them the best I could. Both times the meetings have started of with them saying it is very difficult for them to talk to a foreigner (me). Yes I am a foreigner and it is not a bad thing at all. But I talked with my students for about an hour and a half about whatever topics came up. We even talked about Christmas, I thought that was kind of cool but we did not go deep into that discussion. So they left, and I got on skype and I tried to talk to Jenn but we were having technical difficulties so we are going to try and talk later on. I had class at 1:30-3:20 and 3:30-5:30 then we had dinner and now I am here. So I am going to get out of here and go talk with some friends/co-workers.
Holla

First Students

I had my first group of students come over to my room today. We talked about English we talked about Chinese, they taught me a few things but honestly I already forgot. She wants to learn better English so hopefully I will be able to provide a good base for them. I have a group coming over tomorrow at 10 so hopefully that was be fun as well. Sunday night I did my lesson planning and was gonna try and use what I had...nope...I woke up Monday with an E-mail from Tara, a lady I work with, it was the lesson she was using. So I looked at it, looked at the material and I loved it. So I used it and it worked really well. This week our topics are Describing a Location and Asking for Directions. They have to do all this in English so some students can be poor and some are pretty good. I am teaching my students this week a few things in slang and an idiom. Of course, that it was I do every week, but every English teacher does it. The students love them, especially the slang. It is always fun to hear your students say things you taught them. But anyway...today is Ole and Amys birthday, both are people I work with, so happy birthday to them. In the words of 50 Cent..."We gonna party like its ya burthday"...I wont sing the rest but happy birthday to them even though they probably do not read this thing. Oh well, I am out to find something to do....Holla

Soo

Right now Zach is installing a driver that will hopefully allow me to have sound on my computer. I hope. If not...well I guess we will have to try something else. I stinks to have video and and all that jazz but not to be able to hear it. Today, a big group of us went to Zhongzhou to do some shopping, mostly for fabric. We went to a huge fabric market first because at the end of the month we have this week long event "Culture Week" where we do performances and all that jazz. So we had to get fabric to make out outfits. I am helping with Europe day by being Highlander and either Hanz or Franz. It should be an experience to say the least. It will be fun but that week will also be stressful on some. The fabric market was actually more fun than I thought it would be, yes I said fun. I enjoyed seeing the little kids running around playing with other and when they would see me they would just stare as if I were some sort of monster or something. Before we left, a small group of kids were in front of one of the fabric places and they were all staring, so I said Ni hao (pronounced knee how..its hello in Chinese). They just gave me a blank start so I would smile and nothing would happen, still they were giving me the monster stare. But one little girl would inch closer to me and she was really silly. She started talking Chinese to me but all I know is Hello and Thank You. So thankfully, a few minutes later our translators came from other fabric place and they would translate for me. It really is good to have a translator in situations like that cause the kids were really friendly. The little boy was really funny, I didn't have to say anything to him I would just look at him and he would laugh and hide. The translators told me that boy really likes me. I do what I can.

But if you have skype I would like to have your skype info so maybe one day we can have a chit chat one day. So if you read this, leave a comment with your skype info for me. HOLLERRRRRRRR

One week down..

One week down and ten more to go until winter break. I am really glad that I only work four days a week and put in 18 hours of teaching. This weekend I am going to a fabric market to get some stuff to buy material to make costumes. In a few weeks, we have an event called Culture Week. During this time, people put on performances and all sorts of other things for a country. I am helping with Europe so, yours truly, get to wear a kilt. Yes, a kilt. It will be worth it though cause I am sure people will get a good kick out of it. So, this week I taught my students how to initiate a conversation in English. This morning, after one of the exercises, I had some of the students come up and begin a conversation. So I did a guy with a girl and after every question the girl would answer and he would say, "You are very beautiful" then he would continue on with his next question. The first couple times it kind of threw me off but I did not say anything cause I did not want to embarrass him. But it was really funny to me and lots of the students thought the same. But this week has been really good and it has flown by. But I am going to get out of here and go do something..or try.

The year has begun

I began my teaching at an English teacher at Sias University. Two days have gone by with only more days to teach in this week. The students I have are good and most have laughed at my lame jokes. Oh well, I gotta do what I gotta do. Lets start with my first ever class. So noted two things about myself during our 10 minute break of this class and said I need to repeat more and more clear. I got a lot of blank stares from students and that was not good. Oh well, I tried to teach them what a skit was so the students could perform a skit in class about about the Classroom Expectations (rules), yeah...it didn't work out like I planned. So I tossed that part of the lesson plan. I realized that I was speaking to fast for the students so I had to change that part about me. My second class went well, students were starting to understand me a little bit into the class and they began to talk a little, and my third class on monday was about the same at the second class. But today, I only have one class on tuesdays (8:00 am), my students did a really good job. I had a group of students who could speak good English so it made it easier on me as the teacher. I still did not do the skit though. I did idioms in all my classes and my monday classes did not fully understand. But on tuesday, the class picked it up within about a minute and they loved it. I gave them an idiom, partnered the students up to talk about what they thought it might mean, and afterwards I explained what it meant. They loved it. They all laughed when the found out the meaning of the idioms I used. Anyways, I dont really have much to do so I am going to find something to do....maybe pingpong?

October Holiday

So tomorrow I begin teaching Oral English. The past week has been October Holiday and the foreign teachers took a trip to Xi'an, home of the Terra Cotta Warriors ("the eighth wonder of the world"). This trip was a very exciting trip even thought we were pretty much rushed through everything we had planned because so much was planned within a couple of days. Oh well, I loved it and would like to go back one day.

So lets start with Thursday morning. I only got a few hours of sleep this night because I had to do some laundry. The dryer I used did not dry my clothes so I had to move to another dryer. I finally finished laundry around 2:30 and fell asleep around 3. So I wake up at 6 in the morning to shower, pack and get everything ready to meet in the lobby at 7. We load the bus at 7:30 and leave at 8. The trip was about 8 hours maybe a little more but it did not seem like it. The ride up there went really quick. When we get to Xi'an we picked up our tour girl and head to the hotel. We get a few hours to hang out at our hotel so a few of us went into town to check out one of the ancient capitals of China. So we get a taxi, this was my first ever taxi ride, and head to the city. We go to McDonald's, Starbucks and go on a tour to find Dairy Queen. We did not find DQ so we just went back to the hotel to get ready for a banquet that we had planned. The banquet was absolutely beautiful with delicious food and great entertainment. The food we had was Jiaozi which is Chinese Dumplings). They had about 15 different types of Jiaozi for us to try, some were really good and some were not so great. So the lady comes around to ask us what we want to drink, either Coke, Sprite or Beer. This lady had beer and asked if I wanted some, so I said no thank you. Her reply, "Yes you do" and continues to pour it in my glass. I thought that was pretty funny. But anyways, while we ate, a girl was playing a Chinese Instrument, not sure what it is called but it sounds really cool. We were provided with good entertainment after we finished eating. There were dances and musical performances for us to enjoy and enjoy we did. The most entertaining performance to me was the performance with the yo-yos. There were about 7 girls who had sticks with strings with huge yo-yos on them. They would spin the yo-yos on the string, throw them in the air and sometimes when they threw them they would do cartwheels and flips and all sorts of stuff while they waited for the yo-yo to come down. It was really excited to watch and I cannot tell you how many times I dropped my jaw from what I saw. But when the show ended we load our bus and head back to the hotel and are free for the night. So we went back to the city to get some Dairy Queen. and searching for Dairy Queen we finally find it. The doors are wide open so we all walk in the workers tell us they are closed. Our hearts were broken. So we go to other places. We find this place called Spinetti which is basically Coldstone. I did not eat there but some of us did, I went to starbucks to get a Mocha Frappachino. We make one more stop by McDonalds and some people order there and 8 of us went back about 10 minutes for the rest the group. We get taxis and the taxi we get in smells like vomit. We (Me, Sam and Jason) were worried we sat down in it but thankfully we did not. Oh well, so that was that day.

Friday, the day I waited for and the main reason I went on this trip. Woke up around 7ish took a shower, go some breakfast and loaded the bus. We head to see the terra cotta soldiers. So we are on the way and the driver misses the exit so we go to a museum where they make replica of the soldiers and where they also make chinese furniture. The furniture truly is an art and I think you would think so after seeing the things I saw at this place. But anyways, we hang out there and start messing around with the replicas and take pictures with them and enjoying ourselves until it gets boring. Then we head off to see the real warriors. I am stoked, it is something we used to read about in world history classes back in the day and I finally get to see something I had only read about. We get there and we part then we have to walk to the gate and the actualy soldiers are about good 15 minutes from the gate, maybe longer. We get inside to where the soldiers are and the tour guide wants us to watch a film first, but a few of us skipped out on the film to have more time to see all the stuff (we were only given an hour to check out everything so it kinda stunk). So we walk in and the place is crowed with people. But in China, it kind of ok to push around. Me being a bigger guy makes it a lot easier to get through places cause people just tend to get out of the way for some reason. So I get our group to the front and we start taking pictures and stuff and looking at all the warriors. It is a really cool experience to see all the things. We go through the first pit and checking out all the stuff then we head to the second pit and a guy selling small replicas of the soldiers (Small as in fit in the palm of your hand) but he is asking for 10 U.S. dollars but I told him I would pay 5 yuan but he wouldn't go lower than 10 yuan. So he got mad and finally left me on, thanks to Matt cause he can speak some Chinese so he helped me out with getting the guy to leave. So in pic 2 there are soldiers in clear boxes so I am not sure if these are orignal. Apparently there was a fire back in the day and only of of the soldiers was not damaged, the kneeling archer. So they must be important or something. We have about 5 or 10 minutes until we have to leave so we had to rush through the last building the had to bronze chariot and other things, but I'm glad that was last cause there really was not that much there. After the terra cotta soldiers we go to this museum where we were fed lunch, it was pretty good and we got to see a guy hand stretch noodles that you could buy. It was pretty cool to watch but then afterwards we went to a silk market and looked around and took some funny pictures. It really wasn't anything special but it was a good time killer. After this they took us to a museum but it wasnt anything special. A couple of us just walked around a chilled and enjoyed ourselves. Then afterwards we went to dinner at The Hot Pot. I thought it was actually pretty good. For those of you who have no idea what hot pot is, you have thin pieces of meat and a pot of boiling water and you cook your own meat. It's a pretty cool place and they also have veggies, tofu and sauces for you to try. Apparently there is a ghetto hot pot here that is much better so I will have to eat there one day. After this we were done for the day. We got taxis from the hotel and went to get to DQ before it closed and we did. I got an Oreo Blizzard and it was soooooo good. After this we go to the Muslim Market to shop and bargain. I talked earlier about a guy trying to sell me small terracotta warriors. Well I got them for 6 yuan at this place so that is less than 1 U.S. dollar. But, we go through the market and everything is closed so some people get some McDonald's and we go back to the hotel. 4 of us get into a taxi and are going back and I was wondering why the trip was taking longer than usual. The driver took us to the wrong university is Xi'an but we did not find out until we walk around that campus for about 15-20 minutes looking for our hotel. So people call us and Andy finds a student from the university we were dropped off at and he kindly walks us back to our hotel. We offered to pay him for helping us but he would not accept.

Saturday was not as fun filled at Friday was, but we made the best of it. We started off by going to The Big Wild Goose Pagota. We had a tour planned and going through all the stuff and we get to the door of the Pagota and just walk by. A lady who is one of the board of the directors for Sias said she wanted to go to the top so I told her I wanted to go to the top. So we both paid 2o yuan to go to the top. There was not much to do in there but to climb seven flights of stairs that got narrower and steeper as you guys higher (maybe thats because I was getting tired). But it was pretty cool to go up there and see the city from the top of this old building. So afterwards this stop we go to the City Wall of Xi'an, not to be mixed with the Great Wall of China. This was not really that fun because all we did was sit around and snap a couple pictures. Afterwards we had lunch and went back to the Muslim Market to do a little shopping before we left. This was really fun but also short but I got a nice North Face Jacket. The lady was asking 480 yuan but that was way too much to I offered 150 and I kept saying 150. I walked away a few times but she pulled me back so we made a deal at 200 yuan. About 30 US dollars for a North Face jacket is really good to me. So after that we went back to Dairy Queen for one last time in Xi'an. We were late getting back to the bus but the Blizzard was definatly worth it. Then we loaded the bus and made our way back to Sias.

Like I said, I begin teaching at 8:00 am tomorrow so I need to begin preparing my lesson for tomorrow. The first day wont be too bad so it is not going to stress me out so much. Anyways, I am about to go try and get a haircut tonight cause my hair is getting long.