Back for the Third Time

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

 

I’m finally back in China for my third year teaching.  I’m glad to be back, although, I’m already missing my family.  I had a good summer in the states and I enjoyed my time traveling around Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.  I arrived back in China on August 26 after 28 hours of travel by plane and automobile.  My flight was alright, but not the best.  However, I did buy myself some noise cancelling earphones and I loved them!  Normally I can’t sleep on a plane because of the noise of the engines but the headphones really worked and I was able to get some sleep.  This year I finally decided to buy myself a good guitar, although, I was worried it wouldn’t safely make it to China.  I almost thought I had lost my guitar when I first arrived at the language carousel in the Beijing airport and my guitar failed to arrive with me.  I was almost in a panic.  I rushed over to the baggage claim counter and told the clerk my issue.  He directed me to a special kiosk where an airline attendant waited with my guitar in hand.  I was so relieved to see my baby safe and sound.

Welcome Back Pizza Night

I've got lots of stories to share from the first week.  Unfortunately, my internet is still down so I'm writing this blog from Starbucks in the Wanda.  I've gotten to meet the two new foreign teachers: Tracy from Chicago and Janakie from New Zealand.  I have been busy showing them how to survive in Langfang.  I've also got to meet with quite a few of my old students.  In fact, each night is usually taken up with meeting someone for dinner.  Yesterday, Niu Sisi asked me if I would be willing to cook for her and her friends. (Niu Sisi is one of my freshmen from last year and she came to almost every English Club.)  Of course I said yes and soon we invited the whole group to my apartment for a "Welcome Back" dinner.  We had a wonderful pizza dinner.  I had twelve students come help me prepare the mini-pizzas and salad.  (I always put my guests to work in the kitchen.)  We ended up watching Wreck-it-Ralph and enjoying ourselves till late in the evening.  Many of the students had spent the whole day travelling and I could see that they were very tired.  But, it didn't matter.  They all put on their best dresses and came over for English club.  Some even brought me special gifts from their hometown.  I was happy to see them all again and I was honored that they wanted to spend their first night in Langfang with me.

The Ice Bucket Challenge

So you may be wondering what the pictures below are all about.  Well, the story is that I was out with the other foreign teachers for an afternoon lunch when we saw a group of girls dressed in bunny outfits selling apartments.  Janakie wanted a photo of the madness so we all went over.  It turned out that a couple of the bunny girls were actually students of NCIAE and they asked me to come with them.  Little did I know what these devious rabbits were planning!  They brought me over to a little kiddie pool in the middle of the shopping mall where several buckets of ice water were waiting.  I knew then what was going to occur.  Janakie, whom has a wicked sense of humor, encouraged me to go through with it and I'm not one to turn down a challenge. The event was mainly a publicity stunt for the new apartments behind the mall but the company was donating $100 to ALS for everyone who underwent the icy shower.   There was no backing out now so I went through with the ordeal.  I climbed into the kiddy pool with eight inches of freezing water and prepared for my inevitable demise.  I wanted to stand but the host told me I had to sit.  So I sat in the freezing depths as my pants were soaked in the chilling bath.  The two students/bunny-girls got the privilege of dumping the bucket and they poured it ever so slowly.  I was preparing for a sudden rush but instead I received a chilling shower.  It felt like ages before the girls had emptied their freezing payload.  Perhaps it was only 30 seconds.  But it felt like ages!  The water also had plenty of time to sit and cool down so it was ice cold.  Furthermore, the ice cubs keep bonking me in the head.  As soon as I thought it was safe, another ice chunk would knock me on the cranium.  Finally the ordeal was over and the crowd of onlookers cheered my success.  There were about fifty some people gather around all with cameras out.  The all laughed and I gave them a good splash when they refused to join me in my tub.  It was good fun for everyone.  The host then presented me with a gift of luxury towels, which I then used to dry off.  I was freezing.  I headed back to the apartments, cold and wet.  Janakie affectionately named me Benjamin Bunny and claimed the shower as my christening into the bunny-girl/boy ranks.

The Semester’s Class Schedule

I have yet to get my class schedule and the semester has started.  I've got five classes scheduled so far: two freshmen oral English classes and two junior level business English classes.  The juniors are my students from last year.  I will also teach one Master's level class. 

Tune in next week for more stories from China!

My Chinese Niece: Momo

Selling Apartments in Langfang

My Free Towel for Getting Wet

Pizza Night

Pizza Night

The Street Where I Live

Writing for the Langfang Newspaper

Nǐ Hǎo Readers,

I’ve finally returned to America, for a while.  I apologize for my lack of blog posts in the past two months.  My schedule was simply packed full with events, meetings, and final exams. The spring term is now over, the finals have all been graded, and I'm back in Maryland on my summer vacation.  I’ll be headed back to China on August 25^th for another year. Until then, I plan on writing a blog post each week about all the stories that happened to me during the last two months, so stay tuned.  As for my first story, recently I’ve been asked if I would write a few articles for the local Langfang newspaper.  My first article was published this weekend and more articles are to be published soon.  So far there is no word on whether or not this will be a regular thing but my first article was well received.  The published article was written in Chinese, which you can see in the photos below, but I’ve included an English translation for your benefit.  So without further interruption, please enjoy my article, “Culture Shock: An American in Langfang.”

 

Culture Shock: An American in Langfang

Written by Benjamin Ceary

2014年07月09日

Learning to live in another culture can be a major challenge.  The biggest problem is the culture shock.  Culture shock is a common term meaning that simple everyday things can become strange, different, and sometimes difficult.  Speaking, eating, and even shopping can be a daunting task.  As an American living in China, I have learned to adapt to the many nuisances of cultural shock.  However, not everything has been easy and it took a lot of learning, a lot of patience, and a lot asking for help.  I want to share with you a few of my personal stories about the culture shock I experienced while living in China.

One of the first things I noticed when coming to China was a difference between Chinese food and American food.  Sure, we have Chinese restaurants in America but they serve a style of Chinese food that has been altered to please the America diet.  My first time stepping into a real Chinese restaurant in China was a completely different experience.  The room had a large round table with a glass circle in the middle.  I was not quite sure what the glass circle was for.  Each place had a little cup, dish, and spoon wrapped up in plastic.  It was easy enough to figure out what they were for.  My host ordered the food and then the waitress began placing large plates of food on the round glass in the middle.  To my surprise, the glass spun.  In America, food is served individually to each member of the dinner party on their own separate plate.  In China, food is served to the middle of the table for everyone to share and it spins around on a big plate of glass.  I actually prefer the Chinese methods as it means everyone can try all the food.  In America you should not share your food with others.  However, the Chinese way can be a real challenge for a beginning as they try catching something to eat on a spinning glass top.  Fortunately for me, my mother had taken me to an Asian style restaurant when I was young so that I could learn how to use chopsticks.  The very first dish I got to eat in China was fried eggs and tomato (西红柿炒鸡蛋/Xīhóngshì chǎo jīdàn).  It was a combination I had never seen before.  In America, we eat both tomatoes and eggs but they are always served separately.  The first time seeing these two food items combined made me cringe.  It looked unnatural.  I tried it anyway and the taste was amazing.  I loved this dish.  Now I often cook it for myself in my apartment.  I have even taken the recipe home with me to America and shared it with family and friends.  They too were hesitant to try it at first but now they too cook tomato and eggs on regularly.  I have often had many American friends tell me that this is their favorite Chinese dish.

Language can be a tough barrier to cross.  I remember my first time getting off the airplane in Beijing and being overwhelmed by the signs.  I could not speak any Chinese at the time and nothing made sense to me.  Even a simple thing such as a sign on a bathroom door confused me.  I did not know the symbols for man and woman.  However, I am thankful that many of my students have been eager to help me learn the Chinese language.  They taught me how to read and pronounce pinyin, how to write some basic Chinese characters, and how to speak basic oral conversation.  But a new language has its challenges and shares of embarrassments.  After a few weeks of living in China I had learned some very basic oral Chinese.  While at a dinner with friends, I was asked to practice my Chinese.  I had just learned how to say, “Good food.”  So I proudly said, “好吃!” (hào chī/good food)  My hosts said that they wanted me to use the expression in a complete sentence.  But I didn’t know how.  I was very nervous.  I thought about how to make it into a sentence.  However, I thought wrongly.  I wanted to say, “Do you like the food?”  Instead I accidentally said to my host, “你好吃吗？”  (Nǐ hào chī ma?/Are you delicious?) This was not the right thing to say.  Everyone laughed at me and I felt very embarrassed.  My friends then told me what I said was wrong and they taught me how to say it right.  They told me that it is okay to make mistakes and that I should not be embarrassed.  This made me feel much better.  I learned from this moment how gracious the Chinese people can be and how eager they are to share their culture.  My students often try to teach me new Chinese words and they teach me how to understand Chinese society.  I am very thankful for them because with their help I was able to adapt and survive quickly.

One of the more embarrassing stories I have to tell about culture shock is my failure at shopping.  During my first three months in China I was under the impression that Chinese people did not drink milk.  I thought this way because I could not find milk to buy in the stores.  I was used to buying milk in America and the process is very different.  When I buy milk in America I am used to seeing it in a large clear container in the cold sections of the supermarket.  It is usually behind a door of glass where it is kept cold.  When I went to the supermarket in China, I was confused, because I could find yogurt in the cold section but no milk.  I should have asked, but, I did not know how to ask.  I just made an assumption.  I assumed Chinese people did not drink milk simply because I could not find it in the store.  However, one of my students introduced me to a small bag with milk inside.  I drank it with a level of skepticism because I was not sure what it was.  It was milk!  I finally found milk.  I asked my student where he had bought the milk and he showed me the place in the store where the milk was kept.  What I saw shocked me.  The milk was kept in bags and boxes.  Americans never put milk in bags and boxes.  I was not used to seeing milk come this way and I just assumed it was something else.  How foolish I felt.  But, I learned a valuable lesson about always being willing to ask for help and not assuming anything because of my own cultural understanding.

In conclusion, China has taught me the importance of having an open mind and being willing to ask for help.  China is a wonderfully friendly country and I am thankful to my many friends and students who have been such a big help to me.  I came to China as an English teacher, but, in many ways, my students and friends have been my teachers.  They have taught me about the food, local customs, culture, history, the language and so much more.  I still have much to learn and I am eager for what each new day in China has to teach me.