Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Napolean 'Lame'amite
The first time I saw the movie 'Napolean Dynamite' was in the theatre, the summer of '04. It was very stupid and lame, although sometimes kinda fun to quote. The second time I watched that movie was in China on my computer, the summer of '07. I'm now smarter and cooler, making, it stupider and lamer. And now there are many more, much better movies to quote, like 'Zoolander' and 'The Legend of Ricky Bobby' and 'The Office.' 'The Office' isn't even a major motion picture, and it's still better to quote. At least now I know I don't have to watch it ever again.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
The Ultimate Fighting Machines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mde1NOS8qZQ
This is a link to what may become the most prolific, epic, and important piece of art in post-modern Western culture.
This is a link to what may become the most prolific, epic, and important piece of art in post-modern Western culture.
Why Wednesday
Why does my teacher; who regularly gives lectures on sustainability to the Chinese schools, who drives a Prius and lets everyone know about it, who speaks of my opportunity to hear Al Gore speak with a reverence matched only by clergy, and whose prized possession is a coffee mug made entirely out of recycled products; insist on leaving his AC running all day long?
This or That?
Today at lunch, we started playing 'this or that.' I don't know the official name for it, so I'll just call it 'this or that.' I started by asking "Who'd win: McGyver or Jack Bauer?" "Jack Bauer is only good at using a cell phone," comes one arguement. "McGyver wins."
"I concede. McGyer or James Bond?" My prodding continues.
"James Bond just has a pretty face and cool gadgets. But McGyver can make his own cool gadgets, with which he makes a pretty face."
McGyver still wins again! Has McGyver held an iron grip on the amazing agents population for 2 decades?! Can no one dethrone him?
"McGyver or Ethan Hunt?" Hunt has looks, gadgets, and ingenuity. Ethan Hunt finally takes over the coveted throne. But McGyver had a good run.
We gradually moved into all areas of pop culture. We got pretty nostalgic at one point. When the comparison between BK9s or LA Gear came, my memories of second-grade footware squeezed a single tear drop from my eye. We came to the following conclusions, among the many that we covered in the course of 3 hours of playing This or That:
"I concede. McGyer or James Bond?" My prodding continues.
"James Bond just has a pretty face and cool gadgets. But McGyver can make his own cool gadgets, with which he makes a pretty face."
McGyver still wins again! Has McGyver held an iron grip on the amazing agents population for 2 decades?! Can no one dethrone him?
"McGyver or Ethan Hunt?" Hunt has looks, gadgets, and ingenuity. Ethan Hunt finally takes over the coveted throne. But McGyver had a good run.
We gradually moved into all areas of pop culture. We got pretty nostalgic at one point. When the comparison between BK9s or LA Gear came, my memories of second-grade footware squeezed a single tear drop from my eye. We came to the following conclusions, among the many that we covered in the course of 3 hours of playing This or That:
- A bear beats McGyver, but only when McGyver is without a belt buckle, and the bear has a cub under 1 year old.
- "Golden Eye" for N64 was more important in it's time that "Halo" is now.
- The '85 Bears beats the '91-'92 Suns, however
- The '91-'92 Suns beats the '06-'07 Suns.
- Wayne Gretsky and Michael Jordan was a draw.
The only thing we found to be able to beat the '92 Barcelona USA DreamTeam was the Great Wall of China with the '85 Bears doing 2-min drills on the top. If you can think of something to beat the DreamTeam, please tell me so that I can tell the Pulitzer Prize people. They'll want to know, too.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
My Daily Life
Can you imagine any more boring content for a blog post? I've heard from a few people who are a little curious what my day is like here in China. They must either love me a lot and really be interested, or they are very disturbed and be really interested. And so, by popular demand (the same 'popular' that 'demanded' the Spice Girls and Hansen when I was in 5th grade, but not the same 'popular' that 'demanded' spray cheese, carne asada burritos and the massage Lay-Z Boy), here is what I'm doing:
Some days we go into English classes to talk to students. Usually it's a room that's too small and very echo-ey, so conversation is fairly difficult. I don't know if our teachers just don't like us very much, or they are trying to teach us a lesson, or they are simply not aware of what's going on, but we end up speaking in each 2-hour block about not much at all. It almost seems like the teachers want time off from teaching, so they send us American students in to babysit for 2 hours. I describe our classroom visits in a generally negative way because every time we go in, it's to a class mostly girls, and all they do is giggle the whole time. Really I shouldn't be so adamant about it because the first few times we went to a class, it was pretty interesting and I really learned a lot. It's just getting old, is all.
When we're not being substitute teachers all morning, we sleep in a little bit, have breakfast at 8:00, then sit in lectures about different aspects on China given by faculty on campus. Those have been pretty interesting. My favorite was the one on education, surprisingly. Those classes are not, however, the anthropology or integrated world studies classes that I'm getting 6 credits for. Those classes are pretty much non-existant. Rick, before we left the states, made up a schedule of all the things we would be doing for all the days. Amoung those activities were blocks of time to meet as a group and discuss what we've been seeing and also for the teachers to...teach us. Those times, apparently, were simply to appease the district to let us come here and still get credit for it. Because what I'm learning through those 2 classes for which I'm supposedly getting credit is so nominal, I'm trying to make the most of the English classes by practicing Chinese and asking the students to teach me more Chinese. Today, Rick asked me to stop speaking Chinese in these classes. So that's two strikes. Furthermore, I was asked to submit a list of things that I'd like to do while here, among which were Economics and Sociology classes presented in Chinese. That has also been non-existant so far. But I haven't given up on it, and I'm hoping to get into a few of those classes in the next two weeks that we'll be here. So that's morning.
The afternoons I usually read the books that I've brought, take a nap, and then go play basketball with the boys at about 4:30 or 5:00 until 6:30 or 7:00. That's been very, very fun to do, playing basketball. We usually play 3-3 or 4-4, play to 4 points by ones, and then switch. They call fouls really easily, so it's sometimes a pretty slow game. But they don't check the ball on the in-bound or after a point, and ball goes to the winner after making a basket. I'm learning a lot about the Chinese people through basketball. It's not only one type of person that goes out and plays ball. It's not only the really smart, motivated students that play, but also the students who are just chillin' in their life and don't have any huge plans. That's very helpful to meet lots of different kinds of people. The biggest thing is that they don't hold a grudge! We're all pretty physical and aggressive, but it's all in good fun.
Then dinner is at 6:30. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are pretty important. In America, we eat when we're hungry. But here, they eat when the schedule says so. So when not everybody shows up to meals, the cafeteria staff gets a little upset. After dinner, I usually try to meet up with some students afterward. I've learned more during b-ball and night time with the students and they learn more during that time about me and America than we do during any classroom time, I'm sure of it. If it weren't for those out-of-the-classroom activities, I would be a lot more grumpy. Thank goodness for sports and recreation.
Some days we go into English classes to talk to students. Usually it's a room that's too small and very echo-ey, so conversation is fairly difficult. I don't know if our teachers just don't like us very much, or they are trying to teach us a lesson, or they are simply not aware of what's going on, but we end up speaking in each 2-hour block about not much at all. It almost seems like the teachers want time off from teaching, so they send us American students in to babysit for 2 hours. I describe our classroom visits in a generally negative way because every time we go in, it's to a class mostly girls, and all they do is giggle the whole time. Really I shouldn't be so adamant about it because the first few times we went to a class, it was pretty interesting and I really learned a lot. It's just getting old, is all.
When we're not being substitute teachers all morning, we sleep in a little bit, have breakfast at 8:00, then sit in lectures about different aspects on China given by faculty on campus. Those have been pretty interesting. My favorite was the one on education, surprisingly. Those classes are not, however, the anthropology or integrated world studies classes that I'm getting 6 credits for. Those classes are pretty much non-existant. Rick, before we left the states, made up a schedule of all the things we would be doing for all the days. Amoung those activities were blocks of time to meet as a group and discuss what we've been seeing and also for the teachers to...teach us. Those times, apparently, were simply to appease the district to let us come here and still get credit for it. Because what I'm learning through those 2 classes for which I'm supposedly getting credit is so nominal, I'm trying to make the most of the English classes by practicing Chinese and asking the students to teach me more Chinese. Today, Rick asked me to stop speaking Chinese in these classes. So that's two strikes. Furthermore, I was asked to submit a list of things that I'd like to do while here, among which were Economics and Sociology classes presented in Chinese. That has also been non-existant so far. But I haven't given up on it, and I'm hoping to get into a few of those classes in the next two weeks that we'll be here. So that's morning.
The afternoons I usually read the books that I've brought, take a nap, and then go play basketball with the boys at about 4:30 or 5:00 until 6:30 or 7:00. That's been very, very fun to do, playing basketball. We usually play 3-3 or 4-4, play to 4 points by ones, and then switch. They call fouls really easily, so it's sometimes a pretty slow game. But they don't check the ball on the in-bound or after a point, and ball goes to the winner after making a basket. I'm learning a lot about the Chinese people through basketball. It's not only one type of person that goes out and plays ball. It's not only the really smart, motivated students that play, but also the students who are just chillin' in their life and don't have any huge plans. That's very helpful to meet lots of different kinds of people. The biggest thing is that they don't hold a grudge! We're all pretty physical and aggressive, but it's all in good fun.
Then dinner is at 6:30. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are pretty important. In America, we eat when we're hungry. But here, they eat when the schedule says so. So when not everybody shows up to meals, the cafeteria staff gets a little upset. After dinner, I usually try to meet up with some students afterward. I've learned more during b-ball and night time with the students and they learn more during that time about me and America than we do during any classroom time, I'm sure of it. If it weren't for those out-of-the-classroom activities, I would be a lot more grumpy. Thank goodness for sports and recreation.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Missionary work in China
People are blown away by the fact that I can speak Chinese. And it's great because it's an easy segue from Mandarin to missionary work in Taiwan. Yesterday in an English class, I had DK mode turned on high. I had the students laughing and engaged and asking questions. They were asking about my religion and what I did in Taiwan. I basically ended up teaching them the first lesson about the Restoration. It felt so good and they were listening so intently. They even asked for a story from the Bible. I told them about Joseph in Egypt interpreting Pharaoh's dream because he was a prophet and Heavenly Father wanted to help all of his children, not just those who believed in Him.
Another experience was on the bus to Kaiping yesterday. I sat next to one of the university's teachers who came with us. The usual questions came up about how I learned Chinese. We spoke for 30 mins or so about believing in God. She doesn't, but can understand better because of our conversation how important a belief in God is. I think she was a party member by how adamant she was about not believing God.
Another experience was on the bus to Kaiping yesterday. I sat next to one of the university's teachers who came with us. The usual questions came up about how I learned Chinese. We spoke for 30 mins or so about believing in God. She doesn't, but can understand better because of our conversation how important a belief in God is. I think she was a party member by how adamant she was about not believing God.
My Chinese Girlfriend
Hopefully telling all you about this will make it not such a big deal.
One reason I was excited to come to China was because I would be able to completely cut out a piece of my life that has been the biggest part of my life for the past 9-10 months: girls. For the past 10 months, I have been noticing girls; and whether or not I'm really interested in asking her out, I turn the knob from DK mode to flirting mode. DK mode is the friendly, congenial, bubbly Derrick that you have all come to know and love. All the girls here in my group, however, sort of burned out the flirting mode before I could even click that knob over from DK mode.
Before I came to China, Rick (the teacher in whom I'm daily losing trust) gave my email to one of the brighter of his students. It took me a few days, but I finally found some time in my busy schedule away from taking naps and watching the $.60 movies to give this student a call and meet face to face.
Well, turns out this student, who's a girl by the way, is a stud. She's very intelligent and mature. She makes all these other students look like... not very intelligent or mature people. Not only that, but a buddy of mine in the group from the US has been hanging out with us and another girl, and he DID come here to find a girlfriend. So he's pressing me to be more friendly to my email partner. Luckily, he's also not very intelligent or mature, so I don't listen to him. Also luckily, I'm in frickin' China with 2 weeks left. That's a big safety blanket.
So, Mom, don't worry. I'm not going to bring home a Chinese girlfriend.
One reason I was excited to come to China was because I would be able to completely cut out a piece of my life that has been the biggest part of my life for the past 9-10 months: girls. For the past 10 months, I have been noticing girls; and whether or not I'm really interested in asking her out, I turn the knob from DK mode to flirting mode. DK mode is the friendly, congenial, bubbly Derrick that you have all come to know and love. All the girls here in my group, however, sort of burned out the flirting mode before I could even click that knob over from DK mode.
Before I came to China, Rick (the teacher in whom I'm daily losing trust) gave my email to one of the brighter of his students. It took me a few days, but I finally found some time in my busy schedule away from taking naps and watching the $.60 movies to give this student a call and meet face to face.
Well, turns out this student, who's a girl by the way, is a stud. She's very intelligent and mature. She makes all these other students look like... not very intelligent or mature people. Not only that, but a buddy of mine in the group from the US has been hanging out with us and another girl, and he DID come here to find a girlfriend. So he's pressing me to be more friendly to my email partner. Luckily, he's also not very intelligent or mature, so I don't listen to him. Also luckily, I'm in frickin' China with 2 weeks left. That's a big safety blanket.
So, Mom, don't worry. I'm not going to bring home a Chinese girlfriend.
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