Dubbing Contest

Last night, several of the department English teachers were asked to help judge a movie dubbing contest. The contest was sponsored by students from the student union (an extracurricular organization) and was open to English and non-English majors. Small groups of students had to choose a film clip and dub over the clip in English.

When we arrived in the small auditorium, almost all the seats were full. Our six judges' seats were in the front, with a name card, a judging sheet, and a bottle of water on each of our desks. After each group performed we would give them a score from 1-10, which would be announced as soon as it was calculated. Here were some of the highlights and lowlights of a very entertaining evening:

*The winning English major group did a fantastic job with "Lion King," even dubbing a bit of the song "Hakuna Matata."
*Several other groups tried their hands at dubbing songs, with less than melodious results.
*Titanic was featured... twice. One of the scenes was when Jack is dying in the cold water, and the boy voicing him made shuddering breaths, just as if he was freezing to death. (He was also reading his lines off a piece of paper and was about 5 seconds off on the dub.) Another of the Jacks was voiced by a female -- a little disconcerting!
*At the end of the evening, all the groups received a prize, and the winners were announced.

My Students...

...I love 'em!

Snowy Day

I'm told it rarely snows in Qufu. This morning I awoke to see heavy flakes falling from a gray sky and immediately began making plans for a walk across campus after getting ready. I was disappointed to see that the snow had changed to a dreary drizzle while I was in the shower. However, an hour or so later, the temperature must have tipped back to freezing, and we've had snow ever since. Excited, I walked out with my umbrella and camera to wander the campus, dusted with a cold, slushy white. The snow was wet at the time and threatened to return to rain. I nonetheless enjoyed both my walk and the snack I got at the market: twisted sweet bread and coffee-flavored bubble tea to enjoy while watching the snowfall out my window.

It is now early afternoon and the snowfall is at its prettiest so far today. Large, feathery clumps are falling in a curtain and even beginning to stick to the wet streets. It looks like Christmas eve. In an hour, troops of rosy-cheeked students will make their damp, giggling way into my apartment for a free talk, and we will enjoy the particular pleasure of being cozy inside with good friends while the snow cover gets ever thicker outside.

All the Single Ladies

This month a pizza joint opened up in Qufu. What? Qufu, the city that only recently has stocked peanut butter or ziplock bags, suddenly goes out on a foreign limb and offers pizza?? My teammate Tarah and I had to check it out. So last weekend, we strolled into "European Jazz Pizza" and sat down to a delightfully Chinglish menu. It is the first menu I've seen in Qufu that has any sort of English. We about died when we saw french fries and hot chocolate -- rare treats!

Our waitress recommended that we get the "lover's repast" (a good deal for two people), which we accordingly did. It turned out to include a fruit plate, french fries, and a surprisingly good pizza that included cheese, pepperoni, sausage, and bacon -- all items I have never seen in Qufu! The restaurant was clean and open, with a mix of 50's rock-and-roll reminiscent of a small-town diner. There were as many waitresses as customers, and they spent a good bit of time watching us from a distance, coming to re-fill our glasses of hot water whenever they were even a little less than full. It was great. As you see in the picture, our pop even came with heart-shaped straws, which brings me to my next topic...

Happy Bachelors' Day! Yes, today is a day for all the single folk here in China. Take that, Valentine's Day! Some of the single students are celebrating by going out to dinner with their roommates. They told me that today, you should wish single people a happy Bachelors' Day, and also wish them that they don't have to celebrate it again next year! I fully agree with this sentiment.

So, happy Bachelors' Day to my single friends, and I hope you find love if you're looking for it. On a serious note, happy Veterans' Day to my dad, my grandpas, and all of those who have served.

Old School

I went to a shop on campus to buy some colored paper today. I got 16 sheets at .80 RMB a sheet. When she needed to add up the total, the woman reached under the counter and pulled out an abacus. An abacus! Now that's old school.

Licensed, Certified, and $400 Poorer

I decided before I went to China that I would maintain my speech pathology license and my membership in the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association so that I can easily return to the field if that's what I decide to do. I just renewed them both online, for the cost of almost a month's salary in China. Yikes! I hope it's worth it.

In other news, I have found a way to view comments again. Hooray! So feel free to re-start the conversation.

Free Talks: The good, the bad, the burnt

Every other week, I invite each of my classes to my apartment for a free talk to practice their English. Three classes come per week, and they usually come in two shifts (one hour each). Sometimes we play games, like UNO and SPOONS, and sometimes we just chat. I get a bit tired of 6 hours per week of questions and card games, so this week I decided to move the party to the kitchen.

Yesterday, one of my free talk groups made banana bread. Each girl got to do only one thing (like pour in the oil), because there were so many bakers. The first shift stayed the whole two hours so they could taste the fruits of their labor. When the bread came out of my tiny oven, we sliced it into 20 steaming, delicious pieces and everyone got to try one.

Today, a different class came over and we made pancakes from a mix. Some of them said they were nervous -- they'd never cooked before! 20 years old and never cooked... That is quite unimaginable to me, but I've heard that high school students are too busy with studies to do any housework, and they don't have access to a kitchen in college. There was enough batter for each girl to make one pancake. I set the stage by burning a couple, and the end results were mediocre at best. But it was fun!

Tonight, one of the freshmen classes came over. We just did the standard: UNO and conversation. They are very curious about America (everything from the Mississippi to the Statue of Liberty), and I don't think I'm quite ready to unleash the freshmen on my kitchen.

Basketball as Growth Hormone

From a student composition: "I was the shortest student in our class in primary school, but I became the tallest girl in our class in middle school thanks to playing basketball."