Nuclear Baby

In Beijing, we enjoyed Western food, and tacking on the Beijing 'r' at the end of our words, like saying "nar" instead of the Guangdong "nali" for "where?" We practiced the pronunciations our prescriptivist teachers insisted on, and we were understood. I ordered a shot of tequila at TGI Fridays in Chinese, to avoid the calories in a full-on margarita. I was able to buy small packs of Twizzlers. We had Starbucks almost every day. One night we had Papa John's(!) These small things, having been without them for so long, satisfied some of my culture shock, and gave me hope for the rest of my stay here.

There were other amusements as well. We spotted a number of curiosities in the Beijing domestic airport. This particular one we have dubbed "Nuclear Baby."


Then, in the last coffee shop we saw before heading to our coffee desert, we spotted "Raspberry Rash" on the smoothie menu.


-吴佩芙

Sexy Beijing

Beijing is full of beautiful architecture, temples, shops, Western stores, Olympic preparations. It's impossible to view everything in 4 days. Unfortunately, we only had 4 days and a speech competition and a conference to attend as well. This meant we had to choose some sites and leave others for next time. However, most of the things I saw blew my mind.

On the first day, I went to the Forbidden City with my friend and colleague. We spent 3 hours there. We were constantly amazed and filled with wonder at what it would be like to live in the Forbidden City all those years ago and how impossible it would be to get into the heart of the Forbidden City and overthrow the Emperor.


The last full day, I went with some colleagues to the Lama Temple, which has a 26-meter-high Buddha statue, carved from one ginormous sandalwood tree. We thought it would be cool to see. We went near closing time, and we only had 30 min to explore. When we made it to the place where the Buddha was, we walked inside and looked straight up. We likened the statue to the statue in Clash of the Titans or Ursula at the end of The Little Mermaid. The size of the tree itself must have been quite a marvel at the time because we couldn't believe that the wood had been carved in one piece. (It was verified by the Guinness Book of World Records.)


-吴佩芙

Overheard in class...

"I spy with my little eye, something that begins with _B_."
"Book?...Board?...Button?...?"
"...No...No...No."
"All of the girls have them."
"...?" >>This is a totally innocent thing, right? I hope so.
"Our teacher has some: Big ones."
"...?" >>OMG, Is this innocent or not? Does he have the vocab or the guts to say that?
"Bags!" >>What a relief.

On April Fools Day, my students gave presentations. We played the human knot game. Then we played 'I Spy.' It was a good game for repetition and for practicing pronunciation.

I had played April Fools on all of my classes, telling them that we were having a big quiz. Actually the quiz is scheduled for next week. At first, they didn't believe me, but I told them to check the syllabus, and they were all freaking out and pulling out papers. It was pretty effective.

My last class of the day played a trick on me. The students in that class always have suspicious grins when I go into the classroom, but before this class it was more than usual. In fact, I was being cautious, thinking that they might have put a rubber spider in the computer console. Nothing happened. Then at the very end, I was relieved that class was over because their presentations had run a little short and I was running out of things to do. I talked for a bit about nothing important and made some announcements.

Then I said, "Ok, that's the end of class, thank you, and have a good weekend." They all stayed in their seats. So I said, "And so...that means you can go now." They said, "No, this clock is broken. It's not the end of class yet." I checked my watch and cell phone, which all said class was over. But they insisted that we still had 15 min left of the class. For one terrible moment, I felt myself almost believing, and panic set in because I knew I couldn't keep talking about nothing for 15 more min. When I realized, I said, "No, that's an April Fool's joke."

I'm actually quite flattered that they all thought of the joke and played it together at the end. It shows that they are comfortable enough to have a little fun in class.

-吴佩芙