You want strawberry ice-cream? NO ICE-CREAM FOR YOU

Ah, school. Good ol' school. Been back for 2 weeks now after tomorrow (3/2). I was a little worried/nervous about it to be honest prior to starting up again. I even did some prep work which isn't really my style. I should say, I did more preparation than usual. Believe it or not, I do well when I wing it. In some ways, I find it better. While it can be a little nerve racking without the preparation, it also gives you even more freedom. I start most weeks with a lesson of cards, maybe with just an idea of what I might say and ask, depending on ages, and that's that. From there, I just see how it goes and see what works most of the time. This is not fail proof by any means, so I wouldn't recommend it to the average person. You have to able to improvise a little bit. The way I see it is, this is how I started in China. I had a little bit of direction in the beginning, but not really. I don't think you can really be prepared for being in the classroom with kids or anyone for that matter. The best knowledge you're going to get is from what you learn during your own personal experience in the classroom. Upon starting, I didn't speak any Chinese, and I was teaching English to foreign kids. You walk in the room and the kids are all looking at you like you're an alien. You basically are. Now, I'm still an alien, but at least they're familiar with me. Instead of, 'AHHH, IT'S AN ALIEN!' – it's 'Oh, it's just Jeff, the alien.' Haha. Anyways, once I started speaking to the first class during my first day back, any fears or doubts I had vanished. It was like I had never been gone, and it's been like that since. I'm playing a lot less games this semester. Sometimes, maybe I forget they're just kids. I have it in my head to push them harder and I expect more out of them because I know what they're capable of. That's all well and good, but I still need to remember how young they are. It's almost like the 5 (some 6) year olds are 13 in my eyes at times, strangely enough. I see their personalities, and how they interact. I know who the brilliant students are and I know who the duds are. Don't think that stops me from expecting any less from these so called 'duds'. Everyone learns different. If someone isn't learning, then I need to find what works for them or get them motivated. Now, I can't say I always follow that, but I'm still learning and growing too. My latest disciplinary act is to take children's shoes one at a time. It started as a joke last semester. I only did it with certain kids here and there, and I didn't do it too often. If a kid was really bad, maybe I'd take off a shoe. I found it as amusing as the rest of the kids. Sometimes tears followed, but what can you do? This semester, I brought that action into full effect. I think it's hilarious, but I've had a lot of kids cry due to it. It's amazing how a missing shoe will affect a kid. It's a simple enough policy – you're bad, you lose a shoe, if you're worse, I'll take the other, if you're good, you'll get it back. Easy. Most understand this concept, some haven't grasped it yet. I ignore the screams and tears and keep right on teaching. Sometimes, I'll look down and find myself with close to 10 shoes or more. It's amazing what a lost shoe will do for their motivation as well. I get some of the best responses to my questions once a shoe is in my possession. Besides, I think it livens up class a bit. I also take a kid with me now and again to another class as well if he's really misbehaving. Yeah, no need to use 'she'. It's always a boy. Don't be fooled though, I've got plenty of goofy and outrageous little girls in classes as well. Although, a couple 2 weeks later, I got bored of that tactic.

Perhaps you remember little Bonnie, precious little creature that she is. This is the same girl in one of my baby classes that used to say 'Negga, what's your name?' Well, she's still super funny. I'm basically just her pet monkey. Yep. We'll be reviewing flash cards and learning new ones, and she'll be off to the side saying 'Jeff lao shi (teacher)' followed by her jumping or patting her head or doing both simultaneously or some other funny little action and telling me to do the same thing. The sad part is….I do it. Haha. It's too funny to ignore and she loves it and laughs even more. Then she'll go on and do that again and again. Sometimes she gives me new ones for every card, sometimes she uses the same one over and over. If I finally manage to ignore her, she'll do it anyways. For example, today she was jumping up and down and raising her arms up and down for every syllable of a word. 'Cucumber' is a great one for her since she can get more jumps in. Love little Bonnie.

School is going fairly well over all. Every morning is a struggle to wake up and get myself up, but I tell myself it's going to be a good day before heading to school. I find it helps, if only a little. And getting out of bed may be a struggle, but I've learned from past experiences. If I don't get up within 2 minutes, sometimes even that is risky, I run the chance of waking up late. I've had a few close calls last year. So far, so good.

Next topic. Arm wrestling. Now, you may or may not be aware of this, but being a Powell, I happen to have a competitive side to me. Having two brothers, I have an even bigger competitive side. My favorite kind of competition is anything that requires physical strength, but I also do enjoy matching wits. Well, it's been a while since I've really had a chance to compete in anything, besides the games we had in my school last year and the occasional chess match. So, I got a little ballsy the other day. I was in the gym and there's this guy I'm friends with there. He works there, big strong brute. I'd say he's the second biggest guy there. As for height, he might be a little taller than the other big guy. My guess is he's in his mid 30's. I really like him, and even though we can't really communicate a whole lot, I feel like there's an understanding between us. I think there's even a mutual respect somewhere there as well. I definitely respect him. He has a humble way about him. His name is Yong Zi. His English name is Young, but he speaks very little English, mostly just a word or so here and there. He's given me some advice through demonstration and gave me an exercise before. At the very least, we'll give each other a friendly nod and a smile when we're see each other. Well, I like to bust balls and I'm jokey, so I told Yong Zi that I wanted to arm wrestle him. In truth, I really didn't expect to come out victorious with this thing. I feel pretty small when standing beside him. I was laughing about it, and told him he would win. He agreed with me and said, 'must win', while also being good natured about it. I told him I couldn't that day because I was already like 30 or 40 minutes in to my workout. I was getting tired. We figured out a day and decided that Friday would work since we would both be in the gym. After getting the day set up, I continued with my workout. Well, it wasn't long before I got approached by one of the other gym employees encouraging me to arm wrestle on that day. I protested and told him I was too tired, but he insisted. He asked me to flex and said I was fine. (I feel the urge to remind you that all of these conversations are taking place in Chinese, and where I might not understand all of what is said, I can understand most by words here and there, gestures, and the situation at hand.) Reluctantly, I agreed to. What the hell, right? It became an even bigger ordeal when all of the male gym employees and most of the other males in the gym figured out what was going on and gathered around. We had to get down on our knees and use one of the weight lifting benches, but we made due. We set forth some rules, got ourselves adjusted, locked hands, and started. Yong Zi had me pulled down a good quarter of the way to his winning end, but I held on, fighting back, and a few moments later, he pulled off calling it quits. I was baffled. We were in a lock position where he had me, but I'm not sure why he gave up. We had a second match, and I stated that there should be no bending of the wrist. The same thing happened again, though he might have had me a little less this time. He abruptly gave it up the second time as well. I was laughing, got pats on the back, some praise, and stood around for a few minutes. I was trying to ask Yong Zi what happened and why he quit, but couldn't really figure it out. Chinese are competitive though, and he wasn't too happy about it. He wasn't mad or anything, but you could tell he was a little upset about it. Remember, it's all about face. I told him not to worry, that he was still much bigger than me and that it didn't matter. He later accused me of bending my wrist, I accused him of the same thing, but we laughed it off. So when all was said and done, I think I just earned little more respect in the gym. Maybe someone will tell their friend when they see me and say 'Hey, that's the white guy that beat Yong Zi.' Haha. It was nice to win, but I didn't like the way it was won. I would have rather had one of us go down fighting till the end instead of just pulling away and quitting.

I really have no idea if I've mentioned this or not, but it won't hurt to mention it again. While I was not too psyched about teaching for another year, I ultimately decided to stay in Beijing at the same job (with a pay increase, naturally), despite numerous offers throughout China. It has its benefits. Although, I should mention I strongly considered the position offered to me in Sichuan. Its south which means year round warmth most of the time, and it's known for its food (some really good and some really fricken hot), and beautiful girls. It was tempting. But for one, I know this job, and I know what's required. It's not too demanding, the pay is good, the location is super convenient, and this job offers me lots of free time. With that free time, I've been focusing on one thing in particular – studying Chinese. That is my ultimate goal above all else. I try to study every day for at least an hour, sometimes more. I usually utilize about an hour's worth of my break, which usually lasts for close to 3 hours, and then review the information and maybe do a little more later in the evening. I really want to learn Chinese so I'm pushing myself and making it a top priority. I usually do a pretty good job of it. I've been getting back into guitar as well and try to play once a day for about an hour as well. I actually feel like I have some direction in the learning process as well. I wish I had been this serious about it last year, but I guess that was my warm-up year, ya know? I studied on and off for 9 months, but it wasn't a top priority. I'm really going for it now. I'm hoping to have a lot more opportunities after this year with a better fluency in the language. I've even considered taking some kind of online course to fulfill my Associate's Degree, perhaps something business specific that could aid me after the year. We'll see. I've got a decent amount on my plate at the moment. I've got something going on every day of the week after school. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I'm going to the gym. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays I'm tutoring. You read that correctly. Monday is a long day. I go right from tutoring to the gym and I usually end up cooking afterwards. I'm really getting tired of the low cost restaurant food nearby. The amount of oil used is just so ridiculous. I feel like I'm swimming in it afterwards. Just seeing it kills the desire for me. I still order it occasionally, but not nearly as often as I used to. Cooking is just time consuming, well not really the cooking itself. I should say the preparation and the clean-up is what's time consuming. Like anything. I need like little elves doing both of those things for me; the prep and the clean-up. Now that would be sweet, and would save me a bundle of time. One day, perhaps. Even so, at least I know what's going into the meal when I cook it. I'm a terrible cook and most of my meals are bland at best, but I dare say they're a great deal healthier. Once in a while a good meal will make an appearance. Ha. Tonight…..was not one of those nights. I've got eggs down, so once a week or once every two weeks I'll make scrambled eggs with bacon. Well I've had many potato attempts that never turned out great with just a stove top oven. This time, I took advice from my Madre and boiled them prior to cooking them and then saved them. I ended up using them 2 or 3 days later, but it didn't work quite as I had planned. The eggs were fine, except being cold by the time I ate them. The bacon got thrown out. Bacon is thicker here, so I usually end up putting too much oil and they come out a little blackish here and there by the time they're finished. No microwave by the way. This is all stove top. Well, in my haste, I threw in the pre-boiled potatoes with the partially cooked bacon hoping to speed up the process. That was a mistake. The potatoes turned into mush, and the bacon didn't cook all the way through and ended up with bits of burnt potatoes all over it. Ah, so disappointing. I wanted to redeem the meal with some cereal until I realized I had no milk. I went out and bought one just before cooking, (they come in little bags) but only purchased one. Didn't feel like walking downstairs for another. Yeah, it's a minute walk. Still. Instead, I used a single piece of bread to make a half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That just didn't do it. I'm hungry just thinking about the disaster. I'll post some pics soon of my meals on facebook, so be on the lookout for those.

Gary is also worth mentioning. He's one of the brighter students in one of my younger classes, but lately he's found it more amusing to just say something other than what he's supposed to repeat. I'll admit, sometimes it's amusing. It's nothing major. With vegetables, for green and red peppers, he thought it was funny to say green and yellow peppers instead. Made himself laugh every time. Corn was another issue. He had a hard time pronouncing it and would end up saying, 'porn'. With a shocked face and a hidden laugh that he could detect and sometimes it showed, I would tell him how to properly say it. When he puts thought into it before just shouting it out, he can say corn. But most of the time, he doesn't care and just laughs at himself saying porn. He even asked me what porn meant. I had to laugh and just tell him that it meant nothing…..kids.

During this same vegetable week for the younger guys/girls, I had another class that I was forced to feed every time. One little Cherry started that crazy. She's really bright and super cute, naturally. I end up pretending to grab a vegetable from the card and throwing it at the kids shouting at 'gei wo!' – means give me. That pretty much meant the whole class. Just to move along sometimes, I'd have to shout back in Chinese that it was mine and that I wasn't giving any away. Obviously, I'm throwing nothing, but the kids all think it's hilarious.

The weather appears to be changing course. Sooner than later, that's for sure. On Tuesday…I think it was Tuesday…I woke up and just felt completely amazing. I went to bed earlier the previous night and I just woke up feeling so freaking good. I don't know what it was. It was like my body sensed the change in weather that would soon arrive. The day after that proved to be absolutely gorgeous out. It got up to 46 that day, maybe 48. That's the warmest it's been all winter. It was so nice. The next day was freezing, but that's beside the point. Spring is on the way. The days are longer as well. It doesn't even get dark until 6-6:30. Needless to say, I'm excited. I've been over this cold since it started.

I'll wrap this up with 2 more events that took place last weekend. (3/3, I believe.) I was with a friend and we were on our way to a mall in the middle of the city. The subway ride there was interesting to say the least. I'm on the first stop of this particular subway line, so it's easy enough to get seats. So, we were sitting and this guy was standing in front of me a couple stops later. My legs were spread apart, so his leg was bumping into the inside of my leg, kind of uncomfortably to the point where I had to push his leg gently away with my hand. I took it for just an accident, so whatever. I adjusted my position and closed my legs shortly after that because it kept occurring. Now, since I was with a Chinese girl; stares come like no tomorrow. The farther away someone lives outside of a city, the longer and more obvious their stares will be at a foreigner and a Chinese girl. Completely non-discreet. This is not my first time witnessing this. So, this guy had taken an interest in us early on. We ignored and just talked amongst ourselves. The girl then told me that the guy was talking about me, but we still ignored it at that point. I was starting to get a little irritated, though. He then later had asked me if I could speak Chinese, though I wasn't sure if the question was directed at me or if I had heard him right so I ignored the question. After that, he ended up calling me a bastard or something similar. The girl had informed me of that, and she looked up to him and told him not to say that again. I'll admit, I was pretty mad at that point. This guy was just messed up in the head apparently and just trying to start something or I don't even know. Just being dumb. I looked up at him and said an obscenity of my own. He made no reply. I had grown tired of the situation, was getting mad, and we were getting off soon, so I got up with the girl and I pushed pasted that idiot. Right before we got off, he stood up and blew me like one of those Italian kisses. I'm not sure if you understand that reference or if it's even Italian, but it's a kiss blown like up and away, not directed at me. He then said goodbye in Chinese a few times and I'm pretty sure I heard an English swear from him, though I can't be sure. Such a strange situation. Such a strange guy. I lost my cool, I know. I'm glad it didn't escalate beyond that, but I was more than prepared to crack some skulls if it had. I know, I shouldn't let stupidity like that get to me. I'll work on it.

Situation number 2. The ice cream. This occurred on the same day. We were at the mall, and I had decided I wanted ice cream after dinner long before we even had dinner. So ice cream time came around and we made our way to the Dairy Queen. I still get mad talking about this. Talk about stupidity. This will haunt me for the rest of my life. Haha. Alright, so we ordered strawberry ice cream with brownies. We paid, picked up our ice cream and walked off. We sat down not too far away, took a scoop without really paying attention, and that's when I realized it. That was not strawberry ice cream. No, no, no. Back to DQ, I declared! We went back, and spent some time going back and forth with one of the girls working there. She would have defended this ice cream to the death. Now, this ice cream was some kind of vanilla with pieces of butter toffee or something like that in it and little chocolate bits. I know what strawberry is. I'm 25 years old, I'd like to think at this point in my life that I can tell the difference between strawberry ice cream and other flavors. Nope. I was wrong. The arguing raged on, not that dramatic, but nonetheless. I think the questioned was asked why there was no red or pink within? Why were there butter toffee bits or whatever they were? WHY, WHY, WHY? Nope. She stated again and again that the ice cream she had given us was strawberry. All you had to do was look at it and you could clearly see that it was not strawberry. The girl I was with did most of the arguing, though I threw in some Chinese where I could. This is another reason I need to get my Chinese better, for arguing about ice cream. I would have taken a poll amongst the people in line if need be. Instead, I just looked like the arguing idiot that wasn't happy about the ice cream I got. This girl said she had made it herself, as if that is a winning argument. I eventually snatched the ice cream off the counter, beckoned the girl with me and told the employees they were both crazy. Another situation that I did not handle well. I know. Besides that, the girl told me afterwards that right before I grabbed the ice cream and walked off, they had said I could exchange it for something else. Here's the thing, though. One – we had Dairy Queen again this weekend, ate real strawberry ice cream, and she realized that I was 100% correct. Secondly, I learned through my roommate that employees need to pay for the ice cream themselves if they screw up. No wonder she was defending it so strongly. Remember this, while in the U.S., the customer always comes first - that is not the case in the China. Beware.

Until next time, enjoy.

-Jeff