Stanley’s blogworld

Today is the last day of what has been a lovely 8-day holiday. This year the National Holiday and Mid-Autumn Festival coincided which gave us an extended autumn break.

(I’m holding Eileen in my right arm while I’m typing with my left-hand’s fingers).

This holiday the three of us (my wife, Eileen and I) went on holiday together for the first time (and my Mom-in-law and Brother-in-law also joined us for the Rizhao-leg of our vacation). Eileen was met with great joy in Carrie’s hometown and we had a wonderful time there.

We spent altogether two-days and three-nights in Rizhao. Just long enough to appreciate that locality and to go away feeling refreshed. We stayed in the Rizhao Forest Park which is situated in a tree and plant rich area along the Rihzao coastline. I enjoyed every moment of  walking and running on the beautiful long beach, the pine-tree forest, blue seas and skies, and fresh seafood. During the short trip the five of us spent a lot of time together, especially during lunch- and dinner-time. We ate heaps of fresh fish and prawns (and tudousi -grated fried potato). Later it became bit of a joke when we asked what’s for dinner (or lunch). The answer would invariably be “fish, prawns and potato”. I have to admit I never really got tired of it though. The hotel also gave us a healthy breakfast every morning. Rizhao left me feeling well nourished with good food, fresh ocean air and lots of sunshine (which my red tanned skin was first-hand evidence of).

For the first time in what felt like ages I watch the beautiful peach-pink sunrise over the ocean and deep orange-red sun setting behind the indigo mountain-hills silhouetted, off in the distance behind the forest park. The purple and white wildflowers and fresh sea breeze near the beach at dusk, ghostly empty holiday villas and neighboring temple in the darkening forest all together created a sort of dreamworld that I found myself happily lost in one early evening. The beauty of wandering in the forest park early at sunrise with its fragrances in the fresh early morning forest-mist and bird song wasn’t lost on me either.

Our trip to Rizhao was special for another reason too. Apart from the fact that I spent a lot of quality time with Carrie and Eileen on a holiday together for the first time, Carrie also went on holiday with her mom and brother for the first time together ever. I think we all had a good time together. It was really great to have them with us. We stayed in a nice hotel near the beach, enjoyed good food and it was a holiday of many firsts. It was the first time that Liu He  saw and swam in the sea.

On the first morning after breakfast we went for a walk on the beach. After I bathed in the sea I put Eileen’s feet in the sea water. See reacted by crying out with shock. I’m not sure if the rushing seawater or cool temperature of the water scared her most. Carrie tried again later, but only got the same reaction. On the morning of our last day Carrie and her Mom let Eileen stand with her bare-feet on the wet seasand and she enjoyed the moment. Next time when we get a chance to go to Rizhao again, Eileen should be big enough to splash around in the sea all by herself.

j    kjhniiiiiiiiii 1jkhghffgvhhuuyy0t, m

(The above line is Eileen’s first attempt at typing. She’s sitting on my lap and I thought I’d let her have a go).

On our arrival in Xuzhou we had dinner at a new and really nice restaurant with Carrie’s family, uncles, aunts and cousins. It was the first time everyone except Carrie’s parents saw Eileen. They gave us a hearty welcome and there was a lot of drink and food to go around. Carrie’s cousin, Zhou Tingshen (Jerry), sat next to me and occasionally acted as my interpeter. His English has improved immensely since the last time we had dinner at his family’s home during the Spring Festival of 2008.

We stayed at Carrie’s older sister’s place. Everybody showed us a great amount of their customary hospitality and of all things I will remember most the joy we shared with everybody this holiday.

Needless to say I can’t wait for the next holiday. While in Xuzhou Carrie applied for Eileen’s passport and her mom also had the paperwork for her passport done. Next, after their passports have arrived by mail, we will have to go and apply for visas in Shanghai. A busy and interesting time is lying ahead. I am looking forward to going to Cape Town in February next year and I am especially looking forward to have everybody there meet Eileen, and it is going to be extra fun showing Carrie and her mom around my hometown.

Later this evening I want to give Ouma and Oupa a call. I haven’t spoken to them since Eileen’s birth so it is about time I do.

Laterz

The last time I made an entry was in January - four months ago already. Almost half a year has flew pass, but not unnoticed though. Since then Nanjing weather has slipped out of the icy cold clutches of winter, gradually warmed during our short but lovely mild spring season, and we find it know hot and humid in the midst of  summer’s.

Many big events have occurred since then, many that I am also not aware of I am sure, but none as important to me as Eileen’s birth on 30 April. Yes, that’s right. Carrie gave birth to a beautiful little, almost 4kg big actually, baby girl in the afternoon at 5 o’clock on that particular Thursday afternoon. And what a big surprise it was at first when the nurse walked out of the delivery room with little Eileen in her arms and announced that Lui Lei gave birth to a baby girl.

Carrie had all but convinced me that she was expecting a boy. She in turn had been told by her friends that this was the case.  In the months leading up to Eileen’s birth we discussed our curiosity about what our baby is going to look like, what “he” is going to be like, whether “he” is going to be a naughty “boy” or not, but I kept on reminding Carrie that it might be a “she” and always referred to her, our Eileen, as “she” whenever Carrie talked about our baby as “he”.

My mom-in-law and I waited quietly outside the delivery room for what felt like not too long a while, but it probably was about an hour, before the nurse introduced Eileen to us. I think I will always remember her sad-looking little face, but she wasn’t crying - she had just experienced her birth and must have felt very traumatized about having been taken out of the comfortable environment of her mom’s womb .  I felt an immense urge to hold and protect her. We took her up to the 5th floor of the hospital to where Carrie’s room was. I was at the same time feeling surprised (about our little girl) and fatherly concern for our baby, but I was mostly over whelmed by the whole experience so that when the nurse spoke to me I had found it difficult to register what she was saying. And of course the first thing I did ask her, before anything else, was whether Carrie was OK and she assured me that she was. Of course the overriding thought in my mind was the one that  both my wife and our child were both healthy and well.

Eileen is one and a half months old this week-end. These past weeks she has been the source of many new joys in Carrie and my life. Not only is she very healthy, but she is an extremely well behaved baby. She hardly ever cries. On this account we have been very lucky indeed. In fact, instead of crying to be fed or when looking for our attention she has a way of calling with a sound that sounds like “hi”. She often calls us with a little “Hi, hi, hi…” as if to say “Hi, I am here, come and pick me up now”. She is also growing stronger everyday and she kicks around a lot more, likes to be held upright in ones arms and holds up her head to look around more (but of course she still needs someone to support her neck to avoid her head from bobbing all over the place).

Carrie takes her out regularly for swims at the local baby-pool place. She has been going there since the first week after she and her mom arrived home from hospital (about 6 days after birth). Her initial 8 minute swims have now increased to 15 minute swims now and she kicks around in the little pool a lot more.

My mom-in-law has been away for two weeks to sort out Eileen’s documents in Xuzhou. Eileen needed to be registered in her mom’s hometown on a separate identity document. Carrie’s mom arrived back today and she will be staying with us indefinitely. From the beginning my mom-in-law had been a great help in looking after Eileen and her experience has been of great help.  While she was away I was glad to spend more time with Carrie and Eileen alone but I think Carrie, especially, needs her mom to help her adjust painlessly to the trials of motherhood. In Chinese culture one of the grandmothers always seem to be very involved in the care taking of a new born child. This also takes some responsibility off my shoulders and for me the biggest test is getting used to the new household arrangements. It is all for the greater good, and for now at least, I have to keep on reminding myself of this fact.

Domestic issues has been the main influence of my personal environment these last couple of months and as with all things new it will require some adjustment. I will be looking for new ways to make myself comfortable with all the changes and hope to meet the challenges of fatherhood head-on.

It turned really cold all of a sudden last week on Monday and we even had snow at midnight that night. Winter had officially arrived (also according to the Chinese calendar). The day-time temperature had fallen by at least ten degrees to a freezing -7. After this it has steadily become warmer again everyday - it’s still cold though.

This December had been a very busy one - especially with all the extra English lessons I had to make up because I had the flu for a week. This meant missing a few lessons and no running for a week.
In total I only missed about three lessons (from my part time jobs) and kept on teaching my other lessons. This gave me a bit of a respite, while Carrie nursed me back to health by pumping me full of medicine and, I probably slept more hours since when I was a baby.

On Christmas Eve the two of us went to go and watch a movie together “The Christmas Story”. We also went to go and check out the very beautifull Christmas tree at a church close to Xin JieKou.
The cold weather got my hopes up for a white Christmas, but I was to be dissapointed in the end.

On Christmas Day we got up very late and went out later to go and enden up browsing a local library and having dinner at a nearby German restaurant that had some live Christmas music. Afterwards we went shopping for food and looked at babystuff at a supermarket.
All in all we had a quiet and lazy Christmas.

Other Christmas memories this year would include that I did go out and buy a Christmas tree (all be it a very small one) earlier in the month and on Christmas Day we bought some fairy lights for the trees.
I also spoke to my mom on Christmas Eve (it was her birthday) and had a long chat with my grandparents and father on Boxing day. I still need to speak to my brother and sister - I will leave that for New Years Day.

Carrie has been getting into full “mommy-gear” for a while now. She buys books about how to handle pregnancy and on how to raise children. I, in the meanwhile, try to continue to live life as normal, but of course have been involved in looking at babystuff whenever we go out to the shops or browse the internet together. In my opinion she’s doing an excellent job so far.
I, on the otherhand, will be relying a lot on my experience gained from teaching children. It has taught me a lot and I can honestly say that I am looking forward to fatherhood. The babystage is going to be a very new experience though!

This year has been a year with an enormous amount to be thankful for. It has been rich in blessings and we will carry these into the new year and trust that there will be a lot more rich experiences awaiting us.

As I listen to a bit of Jimi Hendrix (thanks to an urge that has been brought on by the last episode of season three of Battle Star Galactica - riviting stuff!) I finally decide to make the time to write a few notes on the highlights of this past month.

Well, yesterday evening 12 o’clock was the climax (and in reality only the beginning of the year) of a night of celebrations.

As I always say when I witness the fireworks around this time of the year: ” China is the absolute champion of fireworks!”.
At 12 o’clock last night the city bursted into a symphony of colorful explosions that lasted for 15 minutes at “full blast” before it started to die down, but sporadic explosions and burst of color was still evident (from far of and near)when my wife and I krept into the sack at 2.
This was the fourth time I had experienced this brilliant and absolutely amazing way of greeting the new year. Like always it left me astonished and with warm-hearted wonder at the brilliant display of jubalation and celebration that these fireworks represent. Every burst of color and loud “boom!” seemed to me to say “We welcome the new year with great joy!”

In a year that had it’s fair share of up and downs (for this country), you have to admire the great spirit of this nation.
In May there was the terrible agony that was brought along by the earthquake in Sichuan Province. People from everywhere shared (and in some ways still do) emotionally, through various donations, endless rescue attempts (not to mention countless acts of selfless individual heroism) and that is just to mention a few points of how the human spirit has triumphed. To have been able to follow the events as they unfolded was, to say the least a very, humbling experience.

And one of the great highlights of the yearwas the Olympic Games, for sure. My wife and I also happened to go and register as a married couple on this day.
We missed a lot of the sporting action through work (I was pro-occupied with teaching English during our summer course), but it was amazing to follow the news as the Chinese team raked in one gold medal after another. Even more importantly though China did the Olympic spirit proud with their brilliant hosting of the event.
And on the day of the closing ceremony of the Games I went out with a group of teachers and students for a day trip at the end of the Summer Course, but before this on the way to school, my wife phoned me to say that she is pregnant! Undoubtly it has been one of the best moments of my life - I still remember how exulted I was by the great news.

Today is the third day of our winter holiday - what a fantastic break this is! I had been very busy these past few months, especially with the extra teaching I have been doing. It had been a very productive period for me. Something I hope to repeat in the new year.

Of course my wife and I are eagerly awaiting our child’s arrival. We are preparing ourselves for this occassion in every way.
The child is now in it’s mom’s womb, frequently kicking about, causing regular outcries of greatful annoyance and smiles from my wife. We’ll have to wait about another 3 months before the little one will make it’s appearance.

The year of the ox has arrived and a lot of new challenges lie in the wait.
In the meantime I have switched the music over from Jimmy to the more soothing sounds of Andreas Vollenweider’s harp play. I hope that this year will bring us all some magical journeys.

I want to finish this month’s entry with a quote from the Philosopher’s Notes newsletter’s Big Ideas that get emailed to me on a regular basis:

“People talk about the reality of their life as if it is important. And we want you to understand, it’s only the temporary indicator. Do you go to the gas station—your gas gauge is on empty—do you go to the gas station and look at your gas gauge in horror? “How did this happen? [Fun] Why, why, why did this happen to me?” Do you lay your head on the steering wheel and just sob? “Oh, look what it’s come to. [Fun] I’m finished. I’ve lived all of this life, and look where I am.” Or do you just fill up.” ~ Esther and Jerry Hicks from Money, and the Law of Attraction.”

“Meditate, dance, exercise, eat well, laugh, play, create, journal, read, smile, love, breathe deeply, pet your dog, think positive thoughts, imagine your ideal future with such intensity that you can FEEL it, do whatever you need to do to FILL UP. But don’t (pretty, please) look at your “gas” gauge in horror. No need to sob. Just fill up. :)”

That’s it for now.

牛年快乐！

This November - being the big nature lover that I am - I have closely watched the arrival of autumn in our city with great interest. Watching the subtle daily changes in the weather has for me been one of the few highlights of this month.
The other “biggy” has been moving into a new place - Carrie and I finally left our little one-bedroom apartment for a bigger two-bedroom apartment.

When we arrived in Nanjing last February we were greeted with the icy cold winter and its record snow falls. At the time I thought the weather way to harsh for my southern hemispherian weather preferences. It was quite literally “a baptism of snow and ice”. Since then we saw the beautifull pink and white plum blossoms and mild weather of spring and the long hot, humid and sweat-dripping days of summer. I can with out any doubt in my mind declare spring and autumn my two favorite seasons in Nanjing.

During this November the autumn days have brought with it not only much cooler weather, but also beautiful sunny blue skies. I have recently rediscovered the simplicity and beauty of the haiku in a Jack Kerouac novel I borrowed from Kyle (fellow English teacher) called “Dharma Bums”. I even tried my own hand at writing a haiku after some inspiration from a walk around the Ming Xiao Ling area of the Zhong Shan mountain and forrest area. It goes like this:

Orange brown yellows
rusteling leaves on trees high
a clear blue sky sun

On Zhong Shan there there are rows of trees lining the road up the mountain and there are parks with forests and brown-and-orange leaves scattered everywhere.

In the city especially near Xuan Wu city gate and the lake one can see many beautiful colorful trees with autumn reds and oranges, yellows and tinges of green.
The green summer lush has gradually dissapeared before our eyes and every day it is getting cooler and colder.

We also moved into a bigger apartment at the end of this month. This is in anticipation of the arrival of the soon to be new member of our family. Carrie’s mom will probably come and stay with us around the time of the little one’s arrival, and I also hope and expect my family to come and visit some time next year. Exciting times are lying ahead.

I am still teaching a few part-time jobs together with my regular lessons. These have recently become a little wearisome at times, but I still enjoy and appreciate the added experience and pleasure of teaching at different locations. My Sinopec and Huawei students are a great pleasure to work with and I am very glad I have the oppurtunity to teach them.

Recently I have also again rediscovered the great guitar sounds of one of my all time favorites, Dire Straits. I really enjoy tracks like “So far away” and “Sultans of swing”. It feels like I have been listening to their music all my life. They keep on being a recurring theme.

I write these words with a lot of appreciation in my heart and the knowledge that we have received countless blessings to our lives.

My chosen quote for this month:

“There are three things, the wonder of which overcomes me, even four things outside my knowledge:
The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a snake on a rock; the way of a ship in the heart of the
sea; and the way of a man with a girl.” - Book of Proverbs

There are many fun ways for you and your students to introduce yourselves in the classroom. I like to keep it very simple.

When I ask students to introduce themselves I usually focus on very simple and basic information. I will ask beginner students and younger children questions like: How are you? How old are you? , What (foods, animals or colors) do you like?
Older children and teenagers can tell you about their school, hobbies, favorite school subjects and favorite superstar/ role-model.
I ask adults questions like: Are you a student or do you work? What are your hobbies? Why do you study English?
If a student gives short quick answers or struggle to give an answer you can prompt him or her with another easy follow up questions to avoid long silent pauses.

With my very young learners ages 7-10 I like to ”draw” my name on the whiteboard. I draw a snake and then elicit from the students what it is. Thereafter I will write an ’s’ under the picture of the snake. Next I will draw a table next to the snake and write ‘t’ under the picture and so forth until I have written my name on the board. The small kids really like it. I got this idea from Dave’s Esl cook book. It is a great tool for finding very practical ideas for use in the classroom. .

With older students I like to play “the paper basketball game” or “truth or false introduction” - sometimes I combine both methods and use it at the beginning of a lesson. 

A propper introduction from everybody helps to involve everybody right from the start of the course which makes everyone feel part of the class and helps to get the comfort levels and  self-confidence levels up high. 

The paper basketball game requires students to write their names on a slip of paper and then to roll the piece of paper into a paperball. I then put a paper basket at the centre of the room and let each student have a shot. This can be a very fun activity in itself. Afterwards I start by picking up the paperball futhest away from the basket, and read aout the name so that student can introduce him or herself to the class.

In the true/false game students must write two statements about themselves on a slip of paper. I always tell my students not to make the statements too obvious. Afterwards students get to read out their statements and each student gets a turn to say whether they think it is true or false and why. We continue until everybody had a turn to guess about every student’s statements.

Another favorite activity I have used in the past and that created a lot interest among my students was when I wrote a short introduction about myself containing all the kind of information I would have normally told the students. I would write a short introduction about myself, but omit the important bits so the students have to guess the answers. Can be very interesting when you ask them to guess your age (or you might just want to avoid that topic all together)!

The main aim of these classroom introduction methods are to get everybody to know each other better, to make everyone feel very welcome in your classroom, and to have some fun!

Teaching as an ESL teacher has been an exciting to sometimes down-right scary experience. Even after more than three years of teaching English as a foreign language I still experience regular up and downs. This I mostly contribute to the human-element. At the end of the day both teachers and students are unique individuals that experience things differently, and have their own approaches to the challenges and problems they face.

What really makes a good teacher or student, apart from a good understanding of the fundamentals, is the abillity to adapt to, and attend to the classroom situations as they come up - here I refer to individuals’ behavior as well as the group dynamics. This and the application of proven methods - this would include the application of teaching theory and implementation of the classroom techniques. Of course here experience and practice helps a lot.

If you had to observe ten different teachers in a classroom situation you would most probably observe ten quite different classes. This would be because of the importance of not only individual teaching skills and techniques, but also because of the importance of good teacher student rapport. This is an important point that I would like to mention in order to emphasize the great contributing factor of personal dedication on both the teacher and the students’ side - a teacher can help students to study and improve, and students can help a teacher perform better and improve.

In the next couple of months I look forward to publishing some of my ideas on teaching as well as study tips. I hope that writing down these notes will help me on my quest to review and improve my own techniques and ideas on teaching and studying EFL.

The Olympics (written on 6 August 2006)

The 29^th Olympic Games will start in a little less than two days and on the eve of this great event I would like to share my great excitement about this coming attraction.

I still remember clearly when, as a 15 year old boy, I watched an Olympic opening ceremony for the first time in 1992. I remember most of all how I was emotionally and intelectually stirred by not only the visual effects, but also the spirit that symbolizes the Olympic ideal – I have always been inspired by the ideals that are represented by the Olympic movement.

I became aware of the Games for the first time in 1988. I mostly remember images from the opening ceremony in Seoul, Ben Johnson beating Carl Lewis to the line in the mens 100 meters final (and then later being disqualified) and that beautiful Olympic song “Hand in hand”. Even as an eleven year old boy I could already sense and experience the great spirit that encompasses this worldwide event.

Without a doubt an almost intense love and interrest in sport, and most things associated with it, made me an instant fan of the Olympics.

From a sporting perspective I really enjoy the Games – in two weeks one gets to watch some of the best athletes from around the world compete in from the most popular to the most uncommonly watched sports.

Sport alone is enough to get me going and keep me going, but the Olympic Games symbolizes a lot more than the sporting events that it comprises of.

The Olympics symbolize an ideal that I firmly believe in: to aim to be the best we can be as individual human beings and as humanity as a whole; to compete in sport as spectators and athletes in peace and harmony and not at war; to hold forth high ideals and to strive to live by them.

In the Games we see all the drama and emotion that is often experienced by individuals in everyday life: happiness and dissapointment, success and failure, victory and defeat. Some will celebrate gold medals, but most will celebrate having experienced the Olympic spirit.

So it also is with life – some will experience great rewards, but the greatest reward is undoubtly having been around to be part of the experience that is called life.              

Pierre de Coubertin (founder of the modern Games) summed it (the purpose of the Games) up very well when he said that it wasn’t the victory that mattered, but having had the opportunity to participate. Participation is a victory in itself.

I would like to go further by adding that as long as victory is your aim and persuit, then it has already been achieved where it matters, in your heart and your mind.

The summer session at our English language training school is virtually over now – two months of intensive teaching and also heaps of fun with all my many students has finally come to an end.
Once again I experienced how the “dreaded” summer session is actually easy and fun work – especially when managed well.

During this summer I taught three different courses to young teenagers and I had also had adult learner courses to teach in the evenings.
All my students have shown a lot of enthusiasm during this period and getting to know all their different and lovely personalities has made teaching everyone a great honor for me. In my job teaching is not so much about teaching my subject as it is about getting to know my students and helping them to learn the subject matter (helping my students to practice and improve their English).

During last week I was fortunate to accompany some of our schools’ students on two outings. On Tuesday I spent the day with a group of young learners (5-12 years old) and on Sunday we went on a day trip with some of our adult learners.

On Tuesday we went to _ in the south east of Jiangsu province. We visitited a cave, did a trip on a cable car up a small mountain, visited the temple at the top and enjoyed a beautiful view of the surrounding area, slid down on a slideway and enjoyed lunch near the garden area. After that everyone got a chance to handle the local clay that is used here to make all kinds of earthen pottery-ware.

On Sunday we travelled to next door Anhiu province to a small town named Jingxian. After lunch we first visited a nearby ancient village that has a history of 600 years. It is set in the lovely fertilecountryside and surrounded by small green hills and tree covered mountainsides. The ancient building structres reminded me a lot of the ancient town of Yangmei in Guanxi province and and even a bit of the outskirts of Lijiang in Yunnan province.

Our Sunday outing ended with a cruise on a raft on a small part of the Qinghui river (Anhui’s main water source and a tributary af the mighty Changjiang river). The natural surroundings were peaceful and beatifull. Our raft trip ended with all of us (teachers and students) soaking wet from waterfights. We literally drenched eachother with water – we had a really fun time.

The bus trips were long, but it gave us a change to chat and joke with students and collegues. I trust everyubody had as much fun as I did.
All our students (and the parents that accompanied a lot of them) were all fun to travel with.

This summer session was great and I have learned just as much as anybody else. A Tang dynasty writer once wrote: “第子不必不如师, 师不必贤于弟子” or “dizi bubi buru shi, shi bubi xian yu dizi” - not only can a student learn from his teacher, but a teacher can also learn from his students.

Since I last wrote on my blog there has been a few events of interrest that I would like to recall.
The highlight of these recent events has to be Carrie and my holiday to Xi’an, the Shao Lin Temple and her home town Xuzhou. I have also recently discovered a fishing ground near Jiang Xin Zhou - this little island in the great Yang Tze River close to where I live is one of my favorite little hide outs.

More will follow.