Oct. 18/11 – Dear Family and Friends:
Can you believe it’s been over a month since we left Vancouver already? Time sure flies more quickly than I can imagine…. but perhaps that’s a sign of “good times” go by quickly, eh??? lol
So the highlight for us since our last update is we were on Xian’s largest local newspaper on October 1, 2011 (China’s National Day). Front full page of the 2nd section of the newspaper. The topic was on “international volunteers.” The purpose of the write up was to motivate local Chinese to get into doing volunteer work. I was so surprised we got recognized by 5 people (foot massage staffs and local vendors) by the next day. Hahaha.
Here’s the link to the newspaper article: http://hsb.hsw.cn/2011-10/01/content_8172062.htm
For Thanksgiving, we decided to go and ride the bike around the City Wall (Xian’s version of the Great Wall). We did it!! 14 km in 75 minutes! The shape of the City Wall was rectangular and it was flat which made it such a nice ride therefore I did not need to worry about hills or turns (I don’t have much experience in bike riding). We felt awesome when we were done. Deon wants to do it again at night time when the lights are on because it looks really beautiful.
Our 4 week contract with the elementary school where we taught in ended this week. During our last 3 days of teaching, the students decided to give up their recess so they could line up for my autograph instead. I didn’t have enough time to sign for everyone so they came back to me again on my last day. It was quite a scene (like a bunch of fans surrounding the famous movie star for an autograph or something. Haha). The boys also gave up their recess to interact with Deon in the classroom during our last 3 days. Those beautiful innocent smiles and laughs we saw on the students’ faces were so priceless – so rewarding!!
Deon says “no one in WPGA would ever give up their recess like these students would.” The students also drew pictures of me and made cards for me. Three of the girls told me “Teacher, you look so beautiful”. Awww…. So sweet, eh? Then their teachers told me they had never seen their students this WOW about any of the past volunteer teachers….:) I guess Deon and I must be doing something right eh? Hahaha
All of a sudden, I came up with a new inspiration. I would like my siblings’ permission to allow me to take my nieces and nephews to travel and teach with me some day so that I can bond with them and so that they can experience what Deon is experiencing now because I think it is so priceless. I think that the perfect age for this is 9 – 12 years old. I am talking about being away for 60 to 180 days at a time though. I am not sure if this idea will interest my brothers and sisters because it requires taking their children off their normal schooling.
I discovered a new way to learn Mandarin this week. I took the small Sony Bloggie (camera & video) Alex got me (which turned out to be a very useful tool) to record a video of my notes with the new vocabulary I wanted to learn and the voice of my Mandarin tutor, Catherine and of my voice so that we could record the correct pronunciation of the words. This way, I can just review it in my own time which means every time I see Catherine, I won’t need to review the old vocab anymore. I feel this system is better than the digital voice recording since I won’t even need to bring out my notes when I watch the video. The CCS staff thought my idea was very brilliant since no one else had ever done that before. Hahahaha
Looks like I will run out of new vocab to learn pretty soon with this new system (since no review is required anymore) therefore I will start learning the words for the many Mandarin songs that are on my “to learn” list. I feel like I have started to get addicted to the “Mandarin language” now that I have improved so much. lol
During the National holiday week, I volunteered to teach conversational English to the university students. It was a nice change compared to teaching 60-70 per class of the Grades 1-4s. CCS arranged for a “games day” with local university students. I had so much fun playing games with them. Then I offered to do a language pronunciation exchange. In this exchange, they would teach me Mandarin for 30 mins of mandarin and I would teach them English for 30 mins. I was so surprised 4 students signed up right away. Then by the end of the day, I had another 6 people on the waiting list for the following day. They said they really appreciated the way I was able to help correct their pronunciation. It felt so rewarding when I noticed their immediate improvement at the end of the class. After my experience in teaching adults, I requested CCS to let me use my remaining 4 weeks in Xian to teach them instead of going to another elementary school. I like that a lot because it will give us a chance to practice Mandarin.
Another pre-arranged activity done by CCS was to have the volunteers sit and listen to the University student’s presentation on “Current Social Issues” in China. I was so amazed how interesting I found it to be there to listen and discuss the many different topics with them. This is not something I would do at home since I don’t even read the newspaper, listen to the radio or watch NEWS on TV at all. The university students are very intelligent (well they kinda have to in order to get into university here since it is so competitive). I felt I know so “little” and am so “hungry” to learn more…. 🙂
Last week, I was looking into a new Volunteer Organization called “Teach to Travel.” I browsed on their website and watched the videos on there. Then I asked Deon, if it was alright if I sent him back as per schedule on April 3/12 and I stayed till May 15/12 so that I could cover Laos, Cambodia and Nepal before I would go home. This way next Sept, I can do South America and Latin America only. To my surprised, De gave me a little pat of my back and said “It’s OK, I will stay with you. Plus you can pick the countries to go next year as well” (originally he was supposed to pick locations for year 2 while I pick locations for year 1). His eyes were misty while giving his sincere offer. I was so touched I gave him a hug. Then I asked, “Are you sure since you so want to have your birthday party at home?” Then he said “Yeah but I’d rather be with you more so if you’re not going, then I will stay with you too”…. Awwwww…. totally melted my heart… 🙂 We continued talking for another 2 hrs about different places to go to… 🙂
I feel “International volunteering” is something everyone should do at least once in their life time. It gives us a great view of our role in the global society and where we stand when it comes to the world; it puts our own life into perspective.
I never thought I can “change the world” but I am satisfied when I see my student’s face light up after understanding something I have taught them. I learned that we were providing just a few of the many small steps necessary to accomplish a much larger goal.
Hugs
Amy
Originally posted on Amy’s travel blog: TravelwithAmy.ca