Beytepe, Ankara, Turkiye

ELT-02

English Teacher were quite a bit more energetic live than I expected opening for Idles recently! Have a listen here:

 

englishteacher.bandcamp.com/album/this-could-be-texas

 

**All photos are copyrighted**

So the next morning I pulled my red lopi cardigan out of the cupboard, it's not as warm as my Icelandic cardi, and pulled it over my bare shoulders.

My englishteacher embarressed me in the classroom. "Wow, Laura", she exclaimed, "you seem to be wearing a different pretty cardigan everyday! I never realised you were such a cardigangirl!"

Everybody was looking at me, even the rest of the day. I guess I am a cardigangirl, but don't want to admit it.

Me with about half of my books.

 

...that I keep at home. There's this many again in my classroom.

 

Yes, continuing to unpack, I have now moved into the realm of literature. This means I need to start thinking bookcases and the like and getting those set up.

 

This is #47 in my 365+1 photologue.

24/52 Tu decides: Trabajo

{Seasons 2019} My diary

 

Estas últimas semanas he estado un poco apartada de la fotografía debido precisamente a mi trabajo. Soy profesora de inglés y el final de curso es siempre estresante. Hoy por fin acaba el curso escolar y toca descansar un poco (poco porque los peques ahora están en casa), disfrutar del verano y empezar a preparar el curso que viene.

 

--

 

black & white film

A family releases their lantern. The annual lantern festival is in commemoration of Buddhas birth. Daegu, South Korea

Sabrina Lelli portrait

Stoop Brothers

Tommy, Kevin, Adam, and Jack

 

While out adventuring for my POD, I was feeling that I had been missing strangers in my life since last weekend. Although I saw many a face that I believed would make for an excellent portrait, my mojo was off. While heading home I walked past a stoop with a group of friends relaxing on the fine summer afternoon that was presented to us, and decided to make a pitch to include them in my 100 more strangers project. They all agreed and I quickly snapped off a few frames as I felt that with the darkening skies, rain was imminent. While I wasn't sure if I was going to be totally satisfied with my photos I started to walk back home, but once I crossed the intersection I decided I needed to go back and gather more of a story (as per the require of the 100 strangers group here on flickr.

 

To my surprise, the group had grown in size and now included a small dog. Speaking on behalf of one who has to deal with the hassle that is the move-in/move out procedure for the student housing portion of the isthmus I decided to bring this up in conversation. As it turns out moving day will hold a bigger meaning for Tommy (far left), as he will be making the biggest move of all the friends. He finished his schooling last Spring and will make the move to Taiwan to teach English of all things, not counting hours spent in airports and flights Taiwan (in the Republic of China) is a whopping -13 hours difference from Madison. As an upside (as noted by Tommy) it makes it easier to Skype with friends and family, because morning and night are flip-flopped. I asked Tommy if he would miss Madison when he leaves, he answered with a very definite "YES" but he also mentioned that "You never really leave Madison." Which is so true, as many people who have attended the university have children who go, and then they return as alums. Beginning a cycle that has held the test of time, as UW-Madison is quite well known. I parted with getting everyone's name (except the puppy) but left with a new found respect, and well wishes to Tommy and all the best on his future endeavors.

18/100

 

50mm 1.4g

f2.5 1/100

ISO500

Julie & Ken help with burning silhouette poses.

 

LTV Blogged

 

Gothamized

Korean guys hanging out.

Ian's been teaching in China for a few months now and he's already doing his favorite hobby, #halfnaked skiing!!

 

Want an awesome job in China? Come teach English and let New Life ESL help you!! Apply here: newlifeesl.com/find-me-a-job/

LEVICORPUS ... 💫

 

Carla needed a backup with English...

So for a while martha has been coming home, which is native, to help you with class assignments and to practice conversation ...

I think it may be too much to ask under the circumstances and seeing that Carla's new love of Magic is on the rise; I asked them if they liked some snack and when I came back this is what I found...

And the thing is, now he doesn't know how to put it down... it doesn't come out ...

Let's see what we do?

I'm going to start reading all of J.K. Rowling's books for some solution, of course, it's going to take me a while

If there are #muggle in the room or someone knows how to contact #Hogwarts to send me a message privately

Thank you

It's urgent

tel: 157 0568 5106, Email: robertsontim66@gmail.com (former email: suntala@wavecable.com )

QQ: 251886419

 

I was born and grew up in the nation of Peru (South America) where my parents worked as educators and in community development among various tribal groups. I grew up speaking English, Spanish and local village dialects.

I worked for three years as a Med Lab Tech in a rural hospital in Dandeldhura, Nepal. I worked under contract with the Nepalese national government. I also learned to speak, read and write the national language.

I have started, developed and managed my own business providing services to local clients and businesses for 20 years.

I traveled to several cities in China in 2011 to learn about Chinese universities and visit with English teachers and staff.

In the summer of 2012 I took a course at Beijing University of Language and Culture with China Academic Consortium to learn Chinese worldview. I also took field study trips to many historically important locations.

I taught English classes with Education Resources and Referrals, China in Shunyi Middle School near Beijing.

I enjoy travel, hiking, bicycling, reading about history of other cultures, learning, conversation and making friends.

I am 54 years old, in good physical health and single with three adult daughters from a previous marriage.

I am looking for a change of career and I hope to be able to teach EFL in China for several years. I want to learn Mandarin and I’m interested in earning a Master’s degree in a field studies course to improve my teaching ability.

 

= = =

Mar 14 at 12:00 PM, from Tim Robertson

 

Dear Friends and Family,

 

Spring has arrived early in Fuyang this year bringing out the leaves on the willows by the river/canal by my apartment and the plum blossoms outside my backdoor. Some magnolias are already in bloom and the buds are swelling on the Metasequoias (Dawn Redwood) that are planted around the campus. I am fascinated by these trees as they have been called a “living fossil” because this species has remained unchanged (in morphological stasis) for the past 65 million years, according to paleo-botanists looking at their fossilized remains. Until 1948 it was thought have gone extinct over 5 million years ago, until it was discovered in this area of China. Although quite rare at that time, it has since become a popular ornamental tree. What makes it unique is that it sheds its needles during the winter months. This is a testimony to its previous habitat in northern Siberia and Canada where it became the dominant species due to its ability to survive the long dark winters without needles. Because the planet has cooled significantly since then, these trees can no longer grow so far north and can only survive at these latitudes where they no longer need to shed their needles. Maybe with “global warming” they will again be able to reclaim their former range.

 

This is the fourth week of classes and, having just received my textbook last week, I decided to continue on with using The Lion King as the source for dialogues, grammar and vocabulary. The words and story are simple enough for my students and the pictures and characters maintain their interest enough to read with feeling and enthusiasm the scripts that I transcribe for them each week. Having the whole class engaged and participating is a real challenge since many would rather sit passively as they are expected to do in their other classes. Just getting them to bring paper and pen to class to write down the new expressions and idioms is a real challenge so I have been taking my own note pads to class to show how I have been attempting to learn Mandarin. They have gotten used to my nontraditional approach and insistence that they take an active part in their own learning, and they much prefer it to the text book. Some other teachers have also been interested in finding out about what I do and why. Having taken all the course work for a degree in elementary education a few years ago, I am finding that much of what I learned about teaching techniques and learning styles using multicultural methods has been useful for teaching English at this level. I have also been told that the administration here approves, which I was unsure about, having been required to use the text book last year on the other campus.

 

I have been looking into other opportunities that I have been approached about to spread my influence beyond this campus. Last week I was invited to have dinner and meet the manager of the only “five star” hotel in Fuyang to discuss the possibility of training the staff, many of whom are interns from the local vocational college. They have also asked me to enjoy a dinner with their customers and engage them in informal conversation on a regular basis. At this point the details are somewhat unclear, but I did enjoy the excellent Indian food prepared by their chef from India. They put on a sumptuous buffet every weekend of different ethnic foods. Having acquired a taste for Indian food during my years in Nepal, I was glad to get a break from the local fare and my own cooking without having to pay for it. In fact, I will be paid to do it! I also would welcome the chance to chat with adults from this city so I can learn from them instead of having to talk to college age kids all of the time. So far, it has been an interesting experience and I am curious to see what will happen. I hope it does not detract from my commitment to my regular job, but it isn’t every day that I can eat roti prata with chopsticks.

 

I do enjoy teaching my classes and I like my students, but I am often distracted by the everyday irritations and insults of being a foreigner in a Chinese institution. I am constantly having to sort through the source of these frustrations in order to gain some insight. So far I have come up with six overlapping categories: 1. traditional Chinese culture; 2. political control; 3. general attitude toward foreigners; 4. my own personal idiosyncrasies, 5. the language gap and 6. everyday misunderstandings complicated by my own ignorance. Yesterday I ran into several of these while meeting with the college president in his office to request that our salaries be paid at the same time as all the other teachers in the college. We have been receiving payment three weeks later the rest of the faculty each month for no discernable reason. The explanation was that we are foreigners and it is traditional, but that did not happen on the other campus where I worked last year where I was paid at the same time as everyone else. It was with considerable difficulty that I managed to get the appointment with Greg, the other English teacher here and others administrators. I had hoped this absurdity would be quickly resolved by going over the head of my immediate supervisor to the top, but apparently not. The president said that it took three weeks to get the money transferred from the other campus (1 km away) to this one and asked that as foreigners, we should “respect their traditions.” Oh, well. At least we were able to get a copy of our contract, after many requests.

 

This is but one example of many I could give, and it is at times like these that I wonder whether I should sign another contract for next year at this college But I must remind myself daily that I am here for the students – not the party hacks, half-wits and hypocrites - and they are victimized by the system every day much more. In fact, my troubles seem rather small and petty in relation to what the average Chinese person has to deal with on a constant basis. I would like to think that my status as a foreigner would help me to avoid the disrespect that I feel coming from the administration, but I guess it averages out when I put all of my experiences together. I just can’t get used to being treated so well by most people here, but so poorly (in my view) by the people I work for. It does not seem to bother most Chinese who have come to accept the system the way it is because it is the only one they have ever known, there are no other alternatives and they have learned how to make the system work for them through cultivating special relationships (guanxi) to get what they want and need. It is the traditional Chinese way due to an absence of civil society that goes back thousands of years. This is best seen in the five relationships described that make up “filial piety” by Confucius which has become part of “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

 

All these elements are interesting to see played out in everyday life even if they often make headaches for me. I have to constantly work at trying to figure out what is really going on because no one will say (or knows) the real reason. I guess the real reason for me to be here is that I feel a personal sense of calling. and here is where God has put me for now. Perhaps that will change at some point in the future but at present it is enough to have the privilege to live and teach these kids who are made in his image yet seem to know so little about him. In that category I am wealthy more than I know. It is uncanny how so many of my past experiences and education I have found to be useful in unexpected ways. It seems God has prepared me to do this work which he has also prepared in advance for me to do. God has brought me through the depths and continues to lead me through this” barren land.” I am finding his grace to be sufficient for me, even if the daily grind gets a bit too much at times. So often, when I feel stymied and limited a new chance will come to me that I had not anticipated or imagined. Even in a culture so tied up in ancient traditions, God is doing new things here and I just need him to open my eyes to see his work. In the process he is doing new things in me, even if they get a little uncomfortable. It may be harder, but this old dog can learn new tricks.

 

The spring weather has allowed me to get out on my bike to see the country side and relieve the tension and frustrations that build up inside. The recent snow and rain have turned the winter wheat fields a lush green and cleaned the air of the dust and coal particles that fill the air alternately in summer and winter. Since the leaves have not yet come out on the cotton wood trees planted along the roads and trails, it is possible to see much more than I will be able to see in a couple of weeks. Each season offers its own view of village life as the peasant farmers plant, cultivate and harvest their various crops year round. You may not think well of me for calling them peasants, but since they do not own their own land, are tied to it by their residential registration, must do work with their own hands and cannot afford machinery or hired laborers, that is an appropriate and accepted term. The government has been considering a reform of the hukou system that will allow migrant workers to take their children with them to the city, but as of now they must be left in the villages in order to be able to go to school. Even with the intensive agriculture, the small plots of land do not provide enough income without having to work in other jobs to earn enough cash. So much of the food is consumed by the producers that there is little left to sell, and the land cannot be leveraged for loans to start a business or buy an apartment in the city where the jobs are. Some of those abandoned children in the villages have become my students.

 

Tonight I will go to English corner on the other campus again. It is mostly the upper classmen who come to discuss various topics. They feel more confident and motivated than the first and second year students and they are feeling the pressure of preparing for life after college. Many hope to go on to graduate school if their comprehensive test score are high enough. Once accepted they will face an interview to show their ability to speak English, so they are motivated to learn as much as they can in the time they have left before graduation. Others are looking for jobs in the big city using their oral English skills and the ask me to help them write resumes to work with foreign trade and translation. Some are applying to graduate school in America or elsewhere abroad and ask me to help edit and correct their essays. (I generally do, unless they are downloaded from the internet or too incomprehensible.) And others just come to hear about the latest news from a foreigner’s perspective. Controversy can be useful to get past the usual shyness and reticence to express their own emotions and feelings as proud Chinese. If I am accused of being too negative on China, (they are only taught the positive) I tell them to ask me about my country and I will be willing to criticize it just as much for its crazy policies and politics. (Like, “I voted against the president, twice.” Response: “Was it because he is black? Answer, “But his mother was white, so I think he must be white, etc.) But I also tell them that it is just a means of getting them to talk about what matters to them instead of the usual trivial topics that come up every week. It seems natural to include my beliefs and where they come from in the process.

 

I hope to hear from you as well about what God is doing in your life these days and your insights into the mystery of God’s grace.

Thanks for your prayers.

Your fellow, faithful follower,

Tim

 

P.S: You can find and read the article that I cited and recommended to you in my last newsletter here:

www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/january-february/world-...

 

= = =

From Tim Robertson, robertsontim66@gmail.com

Feb 16, 2014

Val-lantern's Day/Festival

 

Dear Friends and Family,

 

Last Friday was the final day of the 15-day Spring Festival which started on January 31. It is called the Lantern Festival and happened to fall on February 14 this year. Valentine’s Day is a popular import from the West and serves as a balance for Singles Day which falls on November 11 for obvious reasons. In this case filial piety (duty to one’s family) won out over romance - which is not a traditional Chinese practice. Only recently has love become a goal or a motivation for marriage for young people instead of a duty to follow the expectations and demands of one’s parents and ancestors. So Valentine’s Day has become widely observed as a means to assert individual happiness over pressure of traditional Confucian values. This clash or competition of eastern and western ideas and traditional celebrations is a sign that China is changing in visible external ways as well as invisible internal attitudes toward every aspect of life. It is a long term process that expresses itself in surprising ways.

 

Not having the means to celebrate the day in the American way I headed down to the local square to observe the local festivities. The entrance to the park was barricaded by carts selling fireworks, food and lanterns to the throngs of people spilling out onto the street. I pushed my way through the crowd with my bicycle hoping to find an isolated corner from which to enjoy the spectacle, but once I had entered the square I noticed that the celebrants were gathered around its perimeter with the center reserved for the firework displays. Indeed, the explosions were loud and intense enough to convince me I was in a combat zone if I had closed my eyes. Fountains spurted from the stone pavement, geysers thrust higher and bursts of sparks blossoming overhead were performing to a cacophony that escalated and merged to a general deafening roar and echoed off the surrounding buildings.

 

At the same time families with small children were lighting the paraffin fueled lanterns and holding them above their heads until the hot air inside generated enough lift to send them floating upward above the trees and sailing away on the breeze. As I followed their paths upward into the luminous smoky haze I saw hundreds of other glowing orbs ascending from all directions around the city and joining together with thousands of others in a continuous river of lights that flowed into the northwestern night sky. Occasional gusts of wind would cause some lanterns to tip and lose their upward momentum so that they gently descended to be caught and held aloft again for another attempted launch. Others would fail to attain enough altitude and got caught in the bare limbs of the trees where they continued to burn until a man with a long bamboo pole was able to bring them back to earth in an ignominious crash and extinction.

 

No one seemed at all concerned at the fire hazard such activities might engender or the danger to children as they ran and danced excitedly among the pyrotechnics. I set such concerns aside and constantly shifted my gaze from the greater flashes of lights below to the lesser glowing lights above and back again as the concert of sight and sound, light and darkness, color and shadowy figures filled me with awe. I found it amazing to think that such an event in this small city was being simultaneously carried out in millions of villages as well as the thousands of other small, medium-sized and big cities all over China without any apparent planning or coordination. And I wondered where the final destination would be for each lantern as they floated upward but would eventually lose altitude when the flames died and they came gently back to earth. The image stuck in my mind as I remembered Shakespeare’s description of life as “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” Perhaps I am the one trying to tell that story to you and give it some significance.

 

That thought had also crept into my mind the previous day as I sat by the carriage window and watched dawn slowly illuminate the Chinese countryside as I rode the train from Shanghai to Fuyang. I had not slept much of the ten hour trip that began around midnight in the center of China’s biggest city of some 23 million souls. The landscape seemed as familiar as the wallpaper back home with a recurring pattern: some trees, a field, a pond, a village, a road, some trees, etc. for hundreds of kilometers. The pattern was occasionally interrupted by a coal fired power plant or a railway station where we would come to stop for a few minutes before rolling onward to the northwest and my destination. The passing bare ground was covered by a thin layer of snow. Conical burial mounds seemed to be randomly scattered over the darker fields of winter wheat that wait for spring to shoot up and bear a harvest among the graves. In the slanting rays of dawn the snow covered mounds seemed to glow as they pointed upward. Who were these people, how long ago did they live, how did they die . . . and what was their destiny? These are stories I cannot tell yet, God knows them and I believe he gives them significance.

 

The Chinese railway system is a wonder to behold as it runs around the clock all over the nation transporting millions of people each day. Spring Festival is the time of the largest annual migration of people in the world (about 250 million this year) and increasing every year. This is the one time when migrant workers and people who have moved to the city get time off for travel to visit their families and children in small villages and other cities. I had joined this massive flow of people in Los Angeles the day before as millions of Chinese also travel internationally these days to see their relatives. Since the fast trains that travel over 300 km an hour have not made it to Fuyang yet, I must take the slow train for Fuyang, which costs only $16 for the ten hour trip. My car is a sleeper with six bunks to a compartment without bedding or doors. I thanked American Airlines for the small blanket and pillow they gave me for the fourteen hour, 6,000 mile flight across the Pacific.

 

The car smells of spicy instant noodles, urine and sweat, but my nose adjusts so that I no longer notice except in the morning when smells and the slurping of noodles tells me most people are eating breakfast. Sleep does not come easily to me while I travel. Perhaps it’s the inner tension that comes while in motion, or the smells, snores and other noisy bodily functions from bodies lying so close by, along with the jolts, jostles, squeaks and shrieks of passing trains in the opposite directions. A sign on the WC: “No Occupying While Stabling.” Translation: Don’t use the toilet while in the station so that there will not be an excess of human waste left on the tracks there. The staff frequently lock the doors of the WCs while in the station so as to mitigate the problem. I prefer to use the facilities while the train is stopped because it is difficult to concentrate on hitting the hole in the floor while swaying with the motion of the train and balancing on the blocks provided to stand on above the pools of liquid on the floor. But I am glad that I can do it standing up. Stinky bathrooms are a problem almost everywhere in China, except for KFC and McDonalds – which might help to account for their popularity.

 

When I arrived in Shanghai last year I was met at the airport by someone from the school who took me to a hotel for the night and then drove the 400 km to Fuyang in a school owned car. This year I am able to find the subway at the airport, buy my ticket to the central railway station and buy a railway ticket to Fuyang by myself. It is the reverse trip I took about five weeks earlier at the end of the semester so I know where to go and what to do without having to ask any questions. Being able to take this trip without assistance is an example of the progress I have made in the past year. It shows me how much I have learned but how little I know and much less comprehend of this other world where I now live and work. It now feels a lot more like coming home and I am glad to arrive in my cramped 300 sq. foot apartment to recover from sleep deprivation and moving to this side of the planet to start a new semester.

 

Some differences between East and West become clearer but they also seem to blur and run together, mixing and interacting in new unpredictable ways. The last four weeks of travel to see family and friends in Sequim WA, Victoria BC, Stanton MI and Moorpark CA have kept me busy and given me a much needed break from teaching in Fuyang. While Miranda was in classes at Moorpark College I took the opportunity to drive a few miles to visit the Ronald Reagan Museum and Library for a few hours. It helped me to get back in touch with my American roots. Seeing the old Air Force One 27000 in its own pavilion along with Marine One helicopter along with visiting the grave site brought back his words about being a shining city on a hill for the rest of the world to see. His trajectory had brought him to rest there atop this hill. I wondered if that was still true. Do Americans still see America in that light or have they grown fearful of future decline and withdraw from engagement with the world?

 

I recently read a biography about Dr. Nelson Bell (father of Ruth Graham Bell). It tells how he decides to become a surgeon to serve in China, so in 1912 he enrolled in the Medical College in Richmond, VA. “When this leading state institution learned of his intention to be a medical missionary, they cancelled his tuition fees. ‘I never paid tuition the four years I was there. It was a voluntary action on their part; I never asked for it. I think they looked on it as a small contribution to medical missions.’” This book is titled A Foreign Devil in China and serves to show the changes of the past century. Foreigners are no longer called “Yang Guitze” or Foreign Devils, but a far more respectful title, “Laowai” which translates as Foreign Sir. But perhaps it is more telling how differently missionaries are seen today by institutions of higher learning or even Americans in general. After detailing his long and illustrious career as a surgeon in a mission hospital in China (and later on in America after they were forced to leave) the book ends by telling how Dr. Bell became one of the founders of Christianity Today magazine.

 

While in a public library I noticed the cover story of the current issue of Christianity Today: The World The Missionaries Made. The article is about an academic study setting out to show the impact of missionaries on the world today. It was exhaustively researched and published in The American Political Science Review – the discipline’s top journal. Sociologist Robert Woodbury is quoted as saying, “I was shocked. It was like an atom bomb. The impact of missions on global democracy was huge.” The article goes on to quote a noted historian, “Why did some countries become democratic, while other went the route of theocracy and dictatorship? Woodbury shows through devastatingly thorough analysis that conversionary Protestants are crucial to what makes a country democratic today. Not only is it another factor – it turns out to be the most important factor. It can’t be anything but startling for scholars of democracy.” Other quotes:

“In short: Want a blossoming democracy to day? The solution is simple – if you have a time machine: Send a 19th century missionary.”

“Looking back now, more than a century later, we see just how long that transformative difference can endure.”

For a better appreciation of what God has done through missionaries, I recommend reading the article.

 

So the long story comes full circle and continues to roll onward. I like to see the future of China through the lens of this article that was published in the magazine founded by a missionary to and from China. And I see myself as a very small part of that transformative process. I also like to think that is part of being a ”shining city on a hill” or “the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” Hebrews 11:10

Please keep on praying.

God is blessing,

Tim

 

= = =

from Dec 2013:

 

Dear Friends and Family,

 

Christmas is not an official holiday in China so I taught my regular classes and celebrated by presenting a special Christmas presentation of 20 carols, videos and stories. I invited the students to bring treats to share. (Favorite snacks are individual packages of spicy tofu and chickens feet) I provided small Mandarin oranges, White Rabbit candies and potato chips. I presented a variety of traditional American Christmas elements that fell into the sacred, secular, children’s and party/romantic genres. In that way I could show A Charlie Brown Christmas with Linus quoting the original story from the gospel of Luke and ask the students to sing along to Away in a Manger and O Holy Night. I also had video clips of Santa reading Twas the Night Before Christmas along with Rudolf, Frosty and Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree etc. I could have taken the day off from classes if I had wanted, but since everyone else is working that day and my small apartment can only accommodate ten students at a time, I decided it would be better to celebrate with my students all week long during their regularly scheduled classes. I had originally planned to have the students sign up to arrive in half hour shifts at my apartment but that would have taken about eight hours straight. I realized that even though it took several hours to download and arrange the materials from the internet, I could cover much more ground in the classroom than I would have been able to do as a public school teacher in America.

 

On the day after Christmas I asked my students if they were aware that it was a special day in China. I was surprised to learn that none of them were aware that December 26 was the 120th anniversary of the birth of Mao, the father of modern China. After informing them of it, they seemed impressed that I would know that little factoid but none seemed to be particularly impressed with the importance of the date. I also got the same response from several teachers. That little vignette illustrates the fact that however much the party professes loyalty to their founder, China is moving forward and not looking back for its political inspiration.

 

I was also impressed at the number of businesses selling and displaying Christmas decorations in this small city. I bought a two-foot-tall tree in the street market with lights for 20 RMB (>$3.00) along with a Santa hat, colorful garland and a small stuffed Santa to use in my classes. I also took them to the private pre-school classes that I teach on Fridays, since I have no college classes scheduled. I was surprised to see that the school had already put up a large decorated Christmas tree in the hallway along with illustrations of Santa Claus and crèches, complete with a baby Jesus (although I doubt that any of the kids were even aware of who the depicted baby was). All this is perhaps a sign that China is rebalancing their economy toward more of a domestic consumer market instead of relying so heavily on exporting all their manufactured goods abroad. But I was glad to put on my Santa cap and add to the impression that Christmas is an important international holiday with great cultural and historical significance for the Chinese too.

 

This past week has been busy with multiple invitations from students to class parties which can go on for several hours. I was taken completely by surprise while attending a class of my students from last year when they started chanting in my direction, “Sing! Sing! Sing! Sing!” I could only remember the words to Feliz Navidad and O Holy Night which I tried to sing without any musical accompaniment. I discovered that being cold and surrounded by students who were recording the event for God knows what, on their cell phone cameras, can have a deleterious effect on my ability to hold a tune and remember the lyrics. The next party, I came prepared with my USB drive in my pocket. When they suddenly announced I would be the next singer, I was able to plug it into the computer so that the words were displayed on the screen and the music covered my shaky voice. The students showed great appreciation for my effort, which I hope was not the worst performance that night. Karaoke is a staple of these parties and many student groups sang their selections by looking down at the lyrics on their cell phones and singing along to music videos they had recorded.

 

On Thanksgiving weekend the partners in business were able to sell the last of the custom made flying disks in the park near the street market next to the school. Afterwards we got together in my apartment and split up the proceeds. Although I had invested most of the money, we split the profits evenly so that each of us got 300 RMB or about $50. Considering we each put about 30 hours into the project, it was not a particularly lucrative enterprise, but it was worthwhile for the friendships, the fun and the many lessons I learned in the process. Perhaps I will do it again next semester if I can find some other investors who want to join in. By comparison I was able to earn the identical amount of money in 2 hours by giving a guest lecture at the Voc. Tech. College down the street that same week.

 

This past Saturday I was invited to be a judge at an English speech competition. Since I was only invited about two hours before, I was a bit unprepared for the experience of having to judge 37 primary school children on their memorized speeches. I found it impossible to be impartial and objective while watching those irresistibly cute China dolls recite their compositions with enthusiastic hand motions. The speeches were interspersed with songs and dance routines that included precocious renditions of the tango and Gangnam Style. The scoring was grueling. I was directed to sit in the middle seat of the front row between four other judges in the cold auditorium where I could barely fit my knees under the desk in front of me. The only source of heat came from numerous cups of tea we were served. Gripping my pen with gloved hands or writing with fingers stiffened with cold was a challenge. I found that by clapping vigorously during the periodic performances I could generate some heat to keep my hands warm enough keep up the pace of churning out my numerical evaluations. After two hours sitting on the cold hard seats without enough room to cross my legs I was looking for an excuse to displace the row of judges for a dash to the WC in the courtyard. Unfortunately, the post-contest awards ceremony required me, as an honored guest to present the participants and winners with their certificates and prizes on stage. I am afraid my smile for the cameras was more of a grimace of desperation by then.

 

I have gotten used to frequent requests by students and random strangers on the street who approach me camera in hand and ask to have a picture taken with me. Of course, I can never refuse without seeming somewhat petulant, so I just stand close to them with a silly grin on my face and pretend they are one of my closest friends in all the world. And they are always delighted to get a photo to send to their friends and family or post on the internet to show their privileged access to a foreigner. Sometimes after a couple of photos with two friends taking turns pushing the button, others appear and before I know it I have a line forming to one side to get their turn, either individually, or in groups, or both. This can happen in the shopping mall when the sales girls with nothing else to do approach me giggling waving their camera /cell phones. Or it can happen on Mt. Tai where groups of climbers stop to get a quick picture with me while I am resting at a small temple, which is somewhat ironic considering the options of what else is in view. I suppose I should be flattered that I am considered such an exotic oddity that they include me in their family vacation to visit a national monument. One time I was invited to an event in the park to “teach English” but it soon became clear the real purpose was publicity for the school. The head master lined me up between two people dressed as Mickey and Minni Mouse (sorry Disney) in front of a life sized plastic replica of a velociraptor (dinosaur) so each of the students would get a personal memento of the occasion. I felt like a plastic Ronald McDonald sitting on a park bench.

 

On Christmas day I chose to eat in the dining hall with the students. I usually arrive a little late to the cafeteria to avoid the crush of students getting their tray of rice and vegetables with bits of meat for flavor. Most of them get their food and eat it within ten minutes and leave without saying a word to anyone. I used to wonder how they could eat is so quickly using chopsticks. I soon realized most of them were using the metal soup spoons or just using the chopsticks to scoop the food off the tray and inhaling it without actually picking it up. When I get there for lunch a few minutes after 12:00, most of the students have already left and the tables have several small piles of bones or food that were shoved off the tray or spit out. I wander around looking for a “clean” table or wait for an employee to come by and wipe each table clear with the same cloth. On leaving the facility, it is customary to take ones tray to a cleaning stand where left overs are scraped into a slop bucket to be recycled to the pigs.

 

Two weeks ago I was finally able to sign a new contract for next semester and my foreign expert certificate has now been renewed until June. I am hoping that the residential permit will be processed this week so that my passport can be returned to me before my departure date on January 10th from Shanghai flying to Seattle via San Francisco. Although I had hoped I would get a contract for a whole year as before, I am glad that the new contract will expire at the end of this academic year, which will allow me to begin a new contract in the fall as is the normal practice. My current contract began in the middle of the academic year which led to numerous problems with interpreting and following its requirements. My switch to teaching on the east campus from the west campus where I taught last year was also a complicating factor. Since the other teacher on this campus will not be renewing his contract after this academic year, I expect that I will be able to renew another year-long contract at the end of the spring semester. If I had not been offered a new contract I was preparing to sign a contract with the Vocational Technical College about a kilometer away since they are currently looking to fill their only foreign teacher post for next semester. They did offer me a contract but I am reluctant to leave my students after only one semester and have to move again. (If anyone is interested in filling the position, I can provide details and an email address to send your resume.)

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Tim Robertson's posts about his time as an English teacher in Anhui at the Fuyang Teachers College are uploaded at: www.flickr.com/photos/ray_mahoney/9114089397/in/photostream, www.flickr.com/photos/ray_mahoney/8302698850/in/photostream, www.flickr.com/photos/ray_mahoney/14217075257/in/photostream; www.flickr.com/photos/ray_mahoney/9012874492/

Australian teachers of english at Bonegilla Refugee Camp, c1948. An inscription on the reverse reads: `Australian teachers / of English at Bonegilla Camp December and January / 1948 / Alex Nypl / (Newman)'. Alex Nypl was a Czechoslovakian migrant who arrived in Melbourne on PROTEA, 23 December 1948.

 

The ANMM undertakes research and accepts public comments that enhance the information we hold about images in our collection.

 

Object no. ANMS0287[006] ANMM Collection Gift from Alex Newman

 

The Australian National Maritime Museum will be holding an after-dark lightshow based on stories of migration from 26 January to 17 February 2013. Check the website for more information on 'Waves of Migration', and how you can tell share your migration story.

Shawn, 23, from Toronto. He is warm, generous and is filled with as much life and love as anyone I've ever met. He hugs every single person in our group, every time we go out. Here, Brooke takes her turn.

from Tim Robertson

Jun 15, 2014

Dear Friends and Family,

 

Last Saturday I found myself playing the role of fake teacher. I can now see the humor of the situation but it was not an experience that I had expected. I suppose I should have seen it coming the evening before, when my supervisor from the Office of Foreign Affairs invited me and my colleague out to dinner with some of her friends - the first time this has happened since I began teaching on the old campus. She began the occasion by giving us both a gift and then proceeded to apologize for not having done her job adequately in her responsibility toward us foreign teachers. I felt embarrassed for her since giving an explicit apology is quite uncommon in Chinese culture and, although true, it was surprising to hear her admit it. I quickly assured her that she had been very helpful and that she had a very difficult job with complicated situations. I wanted her to feel I was very sympathetic toward her so that she would be more inclined to get my papers filed and completed for my new job. I needed all the help I could get and I was desperate to use whatever leverage I had to move the process forward as best I could. Was this the answer to my prayers?

 

Midway through the elaborate dinner Greg and I were asked to help her friends to start a new English language school to prepare local high school graduates to attend college abroad. This was the real purpose of the invitation and by that time we had no choice but to agree to their request to help them recruit students and their parents. As it turned, out the next day the official college entrance exam (the infamous gaokou) was being held at local high schools so Greg and I were taken to various schools to pose as teachers for this new business. While there, I learned that I was not to identify myself as a teacher at the local college, since it would be illegal for us to work at a private school, not to mention a violation of our contract. We were just supposed to stand next to the local recruiters and lend a white face to provide prestige and credibility for a school that we knew nothing about. I don’t know how successful they were in signing up students but we went out in the morning and afternoon and were paid for our “services”. We were both relieved to find out that our participation was not needed on Sunday.

 

Hiring foreigners to pose as fake associates in a business is quite common in China (see link below) but it is was never something I aspired to do. In the past I have helped to give publicity for a local training school where I was actually teaching classes, and I expected that I would be doing somewhat the same this time as well. But the main motivation for me to accept was to curry favor with the college liaison in order to give her a personal reason to do her job on my behalf. She has been quite uncooperative and irritated with my frequent requests that she get the documents that are required by the system for this process to be completed. I am hoping she will be able to get the last document that I need to renew my resident visa, and then get a two week visitor visa to provide enough time for the process to be completed. This last official document should have been given to me a month ago but for political reasons too complicated for me to understand or explain, I will not get it until five days before my contract and resident permit expire. That is why I will need the additional two weeks to send the papers to Liaoning province, in order get my new Foreign Expert Certificate and resident permit.

 

Each of the ten documents so far have needed to be written, translated, signed and stamped by a different person, so it has been a real education for me to find my way through the bureaucracy without offending and irritating too many people by my persistence. If I do not get the last two documents all will be for naught and I will have leave the country in order to get a new entry visa, which can be quite expensive, time consuming and complicated. This is an education for me to see what Chinese must do on a regular basis and it illustrates the need to trade favors and use connections to get even simple things done. Being an outsider (non-Chinese) with no real connections or political influence, I am constantly bumping up against the inertia and indifference of officials who got their positions through family members in the party and feel no need to do anything to earn their salary. In fact, most of the time it is safer to do nothing so as to avoid irritating a superior or losing face by helping the wrong sort of people – like me.

 

This next week I will be doing final exams with each of my students by conducting an informal five minute discussion. It is challenging for me to ask different questions of each student based on their choice of one of the four movies we have used this semester. These students are masters at memorizing answers to questions if they know them ahead of time and, of course, they are expected to tell their classmates the questions that I have asked them. I find it difficult to evaluate their oral language skills objectively and consistently, especially when I am tired by doing so many within a limited time frame. My consolation is that I feel that I am getting better each time I do it, but I am keenly aware of my limitations. I also feel that I am responsible for their progress even though I have them for a total of an hour and a half each week, which is totally inadequate. But I do the best to work within the system, because, as my students often remind me, it may not be a good system, but it is the only one we have. So I feel compassion for them considering the system that they have work with and the disadvantages they have in this area of China.

 

Tonight I will go to my last English Corner and try to find something interesting to discuss. One of the recurring questions has been, “Why did you decide to come to work here?” This reflects the response to my question, “What is you biggest disappointment in life.” The most common response being, “having attend this college.” Anhui has the reputation of being the poorest province in China and has even been called “the Appalachia of China.” So it is understandable that they would want to know why I would want to teach at this college, which is in the poorest, most remote part of the province. They find it surprising when I say I like it here, but aside from it being true, I could hardly respond by showing lack of respect for the local conditions. I do like the students very much but many of them lack the motivation to study hard and do as little as possible. Perhaps this is true of a certain percentage of college students anywhere, but the standards here are dis-hearteningly low, with little incentive, since most everyone passes their classes no matter what.

 

To illustrate this point, I asked a graduating senior that I have gotten to know quite well and is known as a good student, “Did you download your senior thesis from the internet?” He became quite irritated at my question but not for the reason that I had expected. His response, “Of course I did, because 99% of all senior theses at this school are from the internet.” After looking over and reading his thesis, I was struck by how my research papers in high school had higher requirements, and that was before computers or the internet when I actually had to read books and type it on a manual typewriter with footnotes and bibliography. This was the only research paper required of these students in their four years of college. So it is easy for me to get cynical and feel I am part of a diploma mill as a fake teacher. But I take it as a challenge to give more than required and more than is expected out of concern for them as individual students and out of my desire to represent my Lord. Perhaps too out of a desire to feel that I am making a difference in their lives and they will remember and appreciate my efforts. Perhaps this illustrates my own overgrown ego to think I am doing something important and of eternal value.

 

Last week I went on a long bike ride with another foreign English teacher who is teaching at a local high school before returning to Iowa to begin her master’s degree. I took her on a ride I had made before, but this happened to be in the middle of the wheat harvest so the concrete road on top of the levee was covered most of the way with wheat stalks that were drying from the heavy rain a couple days before. As vehicles passed over them, the grain was loosened and would later be separated from the straw and the chaff. This is a normal part of the wheat harvest although it is technically illegal to use the road for drying and threshing of crops, but universally ignored. Perhaps we were of some assistance to the farmers as we rode on top of the wheat stalks, but it certainly took more effort and we often had to stop and manually remove the straw that had gotten wrapped around the gears and jammed the gear shift mechanism. This is an example of how the experience of riding over the same route can be completely different depending on the season and the activities of the local farmers. This week my allergies were activated by the smoke from burning straw in the fields - also illegal.

 

About a month ago I took a long ride with a couple of students and the fluff from the cottonwood trees was so thick in the air it seemed like a snow fall in mid-May. It was particularly enchanting because the “snowflakes” did not actually fall, but drifted on the breeze as far as the eye could see. I had to remember to close my mouth as I rode so as not to inhale the minute fibers causing me to stop from time to time to cough and clear out my throat. We paused to sit along the river bank in front of a local god house which had heaps of blown-up fire crackers and piles of ashes from the burnt incense. The door was locked but I could peer into the gloom and make out the three ancient ancestral gods of the village and three Buddhist images which seemed to have been recently added. It is always striking to me that one never sees a single image; there are always at least three versions of the main figure, and usually many more on the side, often stacked on top of each other. Like Lays potato chips you can never have just one, and the more the better, often numbering in the hundreds or thousands, like wallpaper. Such is the inflation factor of idolatry. One idol is clearly not adequate to represent a deity, but the more you have, the less the value. There is always a need for more, ad infinitum. So they have to build another temple and the process starts all over again, with many temples in a complex, and others under construction. Maybe it shows that they know the gods are fake too.

 

There is a small Buddhist nunnery a short distance from my apartment which I have visited on occasion. At present it is hard to find because it is in the middle of a massive construction site about a square kilometer. When I first arrived the area looked like a bombed out section of Berlin after WW2, covered with heaps of rubble and debris from demolished buildings except for the temple. Now, about 18 months later there are about a dozen high-rise apartment buildings rising out of the ground like erupting teeth in a toddler’s mouth. The work continues seven days a week and would be remarkable except this is going on all round the city and into the country side surrounded by farmer’s fields. This too would be remarkable except for the fact that this is going on all over China in every city and town, with no end in sight. “And now the day has come, soon he will be released, Glory Hallelujah! We’re building, building, building the perfect beast.” (Don Henley, 1984, Album: Building the Perfect Beast)

 

I have several good job offers to teach English in China so if you know anyone who is interested, I will be glad to send the job information and contact with a recruiter who will be happy to send a contract to start teaching in September.

 

Please pray during the next two weeks that all the paper work will be done on time and as I move to Dalian (more about that next time).

Thank God, he is in control!

Tim

 

Article on Fake executives: www.cnbc.com/id/37759560

Article on “naked officials”: qz.com/218369/beijing-is-having-a-hard-time-convincing-of...

 

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Surprise!

 

May 12, 2014

 

Dear Friends and Family,

 

Today I am thankful that I could take a shower, do laundry, wash dishes and flush the toilet again. Yesterday, instead of writing this letter as I planned I focused my attention and energy on getting the water turned back on to the foreign teacher apartment building and, thankfully I was successful. This saga begins about a month ago when I noticed an official looking message posted on my door. Being illiterate but curious, I asked a student to tell me what it was about. That is how I found out that the school had not paid the water bill and this was a warning that the water was about to be turned off. Fearing the worst I took down the paper and brought it to the foreign affairs office to see what should be done. The liaison officer told me not to worry, that it was no problem and it would be taken care of. So, having received these assurances I did not think much was amiss when there was no water this past Friday.

   

After a few hours I was informed by Greg, my upstairs colleague from the UK , that the water had been turned off due to non-payment by the college. So, at least they knew about the problem and it would be soon be resolved, I assumed. On Saturday morning I began to realize that all was not going as I’d hoped, so I began to send text messages and make phone calls, but got no response until around noon. We were told to go buy drinking water in the store, but that was not very practical for other necessities. Since I was going through a bout of intestinal difficulty, I was about to go down to the river next to my apartment and get a bucket of water to flush with. Eventually I got a return call telling me to meet a student who would take me to the appropriate office close by to make the payment and get the water turned on again. After an awkward discussion, several more phone calls, and my insistence that the water be turned back on to all of the apartments in the building, and not just my own, they told me it was the weekend but it would be done in an hour. After two hours I called again and was told that the man was waiting for the rain stop. Eventually, around 4:00 pm the valve was turned back on. Fortunately, I keep my bottles of boiled water numbered for just such an emergency.

   

This little vignette is somewhat symbolic of my relationship with my supervisor, whose job is to make sure that all goes according to contract. I am usually the one who goes to bat for the other foreign teachers, which often results in a satisfactory resolution of the problem but also gives me the reputation of a trouble maker and an agitator for change. I figure that if I am persistent, the unjust judge will eventually give me what I need, even if it produces the impression that I do not give proper deference expected by a Party member from an underling, and a foreigner to boot. So it was not a big surprise that the administration decided not to renew my contract for next year (coincidentally I found this out at the same time as I gave her the water bill notice). But perhaps being open about my faith, discussing taboo political topics with students, insisting on following the contract and persistent advocacy for my students were also contributing factors. My contract expires at the end of June, along with my resident permit that allows me to stay in the country. So I will need to leave China during finals week which does not give me a lot of time to finish oral exams, submit grades, pack my stuff and remove it from this apartment to my next location – wherever that may be.

   

When I wrote you last month I was planning on teaching here for another year with the same students that I have this year, so I was disappointed to have to change my plans rather abruptly. My job search via phone, internet and email for the last three weeks has resulted in four solid offers (so far) to sign a contract for next year. At the same time, I have been praying for guidance to lead me to the right place and make the best choice based on the limited information that I can get from various sources in English. As of yesterday, I have made a tentative choice as to which offer to accept and now all I need to do is sign the printed contract, scan it and send it back via email attachment. But I continue to pray for assurance before making a commitment for the next year.

   

This afternoon I am meeting a couple of students who asked to go with me for a long bike ride outside the city. It is somewhat ironic that I will be showing them the places where I have already gone but they have not yet ventured. Fortunately the steady rain of yesterday has given way to sunshine and a cool breeze. After that I will meet a man downtown, who has asked me to teach some of his students in an English school that he has recently started. I will see if his schedule will coincide with mine. It is another chance for me to learn by experience in a new setting and earn some pocket money. The opportunities that come my way are surprising and often don’t last very long for various reasons. So I hate to turn down the chance to try something new and challenging to my teaching abilities and add to my previous experience. Unfortunately I have only a few weeks left here to explore the possibilities.

   

At English Corner on Thursday I met several students from my class last year and invited them to come over to my apartment for a spaghetti dinner this evening. The students are always eager to try some American style food and “Italian noodles” are close enough to what they normally eat. I can buy the imported spaghetti and sauce at the local Walmart and cook it in my small kitchen with other local ingredients to make a reasonable facsimile. I only wish I could find Romano or Parmesan cheese to go with it since the supply that I brought back with me from the US has been consumed on previous occasions. I can fit 4 or 5 guests around my coffee table in the sitting room/office where I can play music from my computer and speakers in order to enjoy the friendship they have offered me. The students and teachers I have invited are always very gracious and complimentary toward my efforts at cooking since it is unusual for a man (and a teacher) to offer this sort of hospitality. They also enjoy looking around my apartment and relaxing in my back yard in the hammock among the palm trees and bamboo. Since the weather was great we ate outside until the darkness and bugs drove us back inside.

   

Now that I am facing a new future, I am eager to make the change to see other parts of China with different culture, climate and people. Perhaps I have become too comfortable and complacent here and I need to stretch my faith in God’s provision for me. I have chafed under the oppressive atmosphere at this college and I am hopeful that in time I will see his purpose in taking me through this valley. To paraphrase Paul in 2Cor 8-10: “I want you to be aware of the hardships I have suffered in this province in Asia. I was under such great pressure that at times I had lost hope. In fact I felt in my heart a sentence of death. But this happened so that I would not rely on my own strength, but on the Resurrection and the Life. He has delivered me from this hopeless situation and he will continue to deliver me. I have set my hope on his promise to keep on delivering me.” Hallelujah! God willing, I will go to the city of Hangzhou in September and spend the next year there teaching English, earning my salary and sowing seeds. (James 4:13-15) More on that next time.

   

I am finishing my series of classes on the movie Titanic. It has provided me an opportunity to point out many expressions of faith in the plot, dialogue and the music. For example, when Jack says “I am on God’s good humor.” I interpret that as an expression of his reliance of God’s provision for the future. When he says “Life is a gift and I don’t plan on wasting it,” it indicates that God is the giver of life and we have a responsibility to “make it count” for him. The popular theme song also expresses faith in an afterlife. “There’s nothing I fear, I believe that the heart does go on.” Faith is also expressed in the church service on the last day before the sinking and in the prayer of the priest as he quotes from Revelation and looks forward to “a new heaven and a new earth.” Jack can also be seen as a savior since he gives up his life for Rose and she says, “But now you know that there was a man named Jack Dawson and that he saved me in every way that a person can be saved.” There is also an example of lack of faith when Cal says, “God himself cannot sink this ship.” Director James Cameron has said he intended to depict the end of the world in microcosm. While not exactly the gospel, these offer an opportunity to discuss religious topics in class to students who have been indoctrinated with atheism. I pray that from such small seeds, faith can grow.

   

The influence and popularity of American culture is evident everywhere and hard to miss. From the never ending basketball games that occupy the fourteen courts and backboards that I see every day on my way to classes, to the popularity of faded jeans and tee-shirts emblazoned with fake designer brand names and other random English words. I am the only one on campus who wears shirts and hats with Chinese characters on them. That fits my status as a foreigner trying to honor the host culture that has shifted dramatically in the past couple of decades. Many of my students have watched more American TV shows and movies than I have (since they are freely available to download from the internet), and they know the characters names and personalities too. (Curiously, the most popular line from Titanic in China, which I frequently hear is, “You jump, I jump.” In the U.S. it is “I’m the king of the world!”) When I ask students what their dreams are, the most common response is, to go to America to study, or just to see places they have seen on their video screens. One of my quirks is to try to decipher the English words and letters printed on clothing since it is somewhat altered from the original, either intentionally or in error. Often the words and letters seem to be chosen without rhyme or reason. Most Chinese have no idea what the English words mean, just as many Americans have no idea what the Chinese characters say on their clothes and accessories. So are these people victims of fashion or willing participants in a bizarre cosmic joke? Either way, it brings a smile to my face.

   

Last month I mentioned that my mother’s has cancer is no longer treatable after over 20 years of successful treatment and she is expected to live only few more weeks. I had accepted that I may not see her again in this life, but since then she has regained some strength and I am hopeful that I will be able to see her after finishing this semester. I am still exploring options for how to spend the two months of July and August between spring and fall semester. I am open to suggestions and offers of hospitality. Perhaps this is a time to try to reconnect with members of my family whom I have not seen for many years.

   

Thank-you for praying with me,

 

Tim

  

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On Saturday, April 12, 2014 2:15 PM, "robertsontim66@gmail.com" wrote:

 

Dear Friends and Family,

 

I am have been experiencing internet connection problems for several days so I am not sure when I will be able to send this off, but as always, I do what I can and hope for the best.

 

Now that I have started my second year, classes are easier because I am able to reuse some of the lesson material that I created last year. I have to adapt them to my students on this campus who have lower English skills and don’t seem to be quite as motivated, but I enjoy the challenge. My students have become somewhat accustomed to my unorthodox teaching methods and my expectations of them. After many weeks I have gotten them to put away their mobile phones, and text books, and take notes in a notebook. That is the bargain I have struck with them, since they would much prefer using American movies as a source of dialogue than using their text, which is designed to teach British English to students in the UK. I have just finished a three week series using the Disney/Pixar video of Brave, which focuses on a mother daughter relationship and whether to follow tradition. Since 90% of my classes are made up of young women who are the first in their families to go to college, this is something they can all relate to on a personal level.

 

Next week I plan on starting a series on Titanic since it is a popular movie in China and many of the students have already seen it. Hopefully the level of difficulty will not be too high but I feel it is better to use real actors than animated characters, which I have used so far. I also choose popular songs to go with the plot of the stories from ones they have requested and written down for me in the attendance book that I pass around for them to mark. It usually takes three times before they feel ready to sing along, but repetition and review is part of the learning process. I also use short video clips of OMG!Meiyu that are produced by Voice of America and teach authentic language used by young people in American pop culture. The slang, idioms, and figures of speech are presented by a cute young American named Bai Jie (Jessica Beinecke) who speaks fluent Mandarin and has a large following on Weibo - the Chinese version of Facebook/Twitter. She is much more attractive and interesting to watch than me, so I use a couple of her three minute videos each week to help explain expressions related to the dialogue from the movie. I also find pictures and use music videos on the internet to help illustrate new concepts and settings. The combination of multi-media helps to produces images, sounds and scenarios so that I do a minimum of explaining and oral instruction. In addition, I make a list of new words and idioms from the script that I put up on the screen for them to write in their notebooks, along with the slang expressions, which I write on the chalk board.

 

After I show selected scenes from the movie with subtitles, and have them read the parts from the script (which I transcribe and project onto the screen) in groups. I then ask some of them to perform it in front of the class from a printed copy of the script, while the rest read along from the screen. In this way, they go over the same material three times. The visual images, pronunciation, context and plot are much better in communicating the meaning of the language than a textbook or a lecture on grammar or traditional memorization. This technique allows me to engage all of the students in the class all of the time without intimidation or embarrassment, since “losing face” is such a huge deterrent for them to speak up in class. I usually end the class by drawing parallels between the characters and situations in the movie to China and the students themselves. Thus, they learn English as well as how we share many things in common on a cultural and personal level. I teach each lesson eight times but I have to adapt and modify it each time according to how the students respond. By the end of the week I have the bugs worked out so that I can move seamlessly between the various programs and media in the right order and within the given time frame. The many hours spend preparing, finding and downloading pay off with greater enthusiasm and participation in the classroom.

 

I have started wearing short sleeved shirts as the weather warms and the bright green of new leaves appear on the various kinds of trees, especially the gingko and the dawn redwoods. The cherry blossoms are out and leaves are emerging on the bamboo and palm trees that I planted in my back patio area. I have strung up the hammock (that I bought in Qingdao last summer) between a tree and the concrete wall. I find it a relaxing way to end the day gazing up at the birds, moon and stars as they make their way through the tree branches in the evening. I listen to music with headphones or play my harmonica while tugging on a wire to keep swaying gently in the evening breeze. This reminds me of the many hours that I spent reading and relaxing at my home in the jungles of Peru many years ago, although I do miss the grand sweep of the Milky Way visible in the southern hemisphere.

 

The weather is also ideal for long rides out into the country side where the winter wheat is over a foot tall and the yellow rape seed is blooming in the fields and garden plots. The birds are singing to their mates, especially the black and white magpies which are as big as ravens and build onto their huge nests each year in the tops of the cottonwood trees. The air is full of the drifting fluff from the ever present cotton woods which is the primary tree planted for wood. On a recent ride I stopped to watch some men and women operating a large lathe to peel sheets off the logs, which are then cut put on racks in the yard to dry in the sun before being trucked off to be laminated. I was impressed at how much human labor was used and how small the logs were – usually less than a foot in diameter. The operators were happy to let me ride around and watch them at work, and even offered me a smoke. It was the first time I had observed this process although I have often seen the machinery and products along the road from a train or bus window. The physical exercise and the peaceful landscape, crowded with farms and villages give me a chance to see new aspects of life in this area which are good for body, heart and mind.

 

I have been gradually broadening my range of dishes that I can cook in my rudimentary kitchen equipped with only a hotplate, a microwave oven, a rice steamer and an electric tea kettle. As a result, I am finding it harder to shed the extra weight I gained during the winter when I spent many days without physical activity due to the weather and my travel itinerary. Perhaps I am also burning less calories in nervous energy that inevitably came with adapting to a new culture, profession and lifestyle. It seems I am continually moving around the cycle of tension, frustration, cynicism and complacency as a result of trying to solve various problems. I have learned to value the small progress in various areas from the classroom to my apartment and add to my knowledge of this strange and fascinating place called China. For instance, after eight months living in this apartment I was finally able to get my toilet bolted down to the floor. Now if it would only flush properly, stop flushing and refill the tank automatically! Each small victory encourages me to keep pushing for improvements on a personal or professional level. Although it does not seem like much, over time it adds up to significant progress.

 

Another interest I have is in teaching at a local pre-school one afternoon each week. I have finally realized that kids of this age are not impressed with technology and I have switched my focus to high touch. When I enter the room I go around to shake hands and greet them individually. At first, many were reluctant to extend their hands to me, but now they approach me and shake enthusiastically. When I leave at the end of class, I am surrounded by a crowd of three foot tall minions asking to shake hands and get a hug. Breaking the physical barrier also encourages them to speak and sing and dance with me even without the music and video on screen. Since most of my college students had never met or talked with a foreigner until my class, it is encouraging to see how quickly and easily three, four and five year-old children have adapted to me as their teacher – often, faster than college students. In China the old ways change very slowly but once the change has come on a personal level of experience, there is no going back. Building up familiarity, respect and credibility takes much time and effort, but it is the only way to open minds and hearts. In the same way I swing back and forth between empathy and impatience with my students and the pace of learning in the classroom, but the progress is evident and inevitable if I do not grow weary and lose heart.

 

There are many pleasant elements to life on campus, like the strains of instrumental melodies leaking out of the music building close to my apartment, and the family of feral cats that I feed on my back patio. (Thanks to Greg, my upstairs neighbor who buys their food.) They have gotten used to me giving them food and water, hanging up my laundry and hanging out in my hammock. So much so, that if I do not close my door, some of them will venture inside looking for more food. Somewhat less enjoyable is the chanting that comes from athletic field and vocal warm-ups of voice lessons starting around 6:00. I have gotten used to the frequent honking and the sound of fireworks going off at all times of the day or night. The students’ attire is also changing with the seasons and I am becoming accustomed to seeing short girls in high heels and short skirts with long straight black hair. They enjoy shopping for the latest fashions in the stalls and street markets as well as the large department stores. So, they are more attractively and fashionably dressed than us fashion-challenged foreign teachers. To compensate, I try to wear a different hat to class each week to go along with the lesson – another visual aid.

 

Along with these bright spots comes news of my mother who has recently returned home from the hospital and has been put on hospice care. The medications that she has been taking for the last twenty-five years are no longer effective and the cancer has spread from her breast to her lungs, diaphragm and liver. Unfortunately the cancer meds have also lowered her resistance to infection resulting in her stay at the hospital and taking high dosages of antibiotics. Her doctor estimates that she may have only two months left. I am trying to decide if I should return to Michigan to see her one last time, or for the funeral - as I did for my father about 18 months ago. I knew that when I visited her in early February that it might be the last time that I would see her. My oldest sister and her husband are there to help with another sister coming later from Canada to provide in-home care. The college administration has given me permission to go but I do not look forward to the time and rigors of travelling 10,000 miles there and back again, not to mention the costs. My younger sister has just begun to teach at an adult English training school in Shanghai and my older brother will soon be leaving for a job in Africa, but there will be many other family members who will be able to be there. So I am waiting to see what I should do and asking God for wisdom and guidance.

 

I hope you will pray along with me in this and many other matters that I face.

Looking forward to the resurrection,

Tim

 

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Tim Robertson's posts about his time as an English teacher in Anhui at the Fuyang Teachers College are uploaded at: www.flickr.com/photos/ray_mahoney/9114089397/in/photostream, www.flickr.com/photos/ray_mahoney/8302698850/in/photostream, www.flickr.com/photos/ray_mahoney/14217075257/in/photostream; www.flickr.com/photos/ray_mahoney/9012874492/

Lost in Paradise

from Tim Robertson

robertsontim66@gmail.com

Sep 15， 2014

 

Dear Friends and Family,

 

I am back in China again after my summer of “couch surfing” as my daughters would call it. Since I had no friends in the Los Angeles area, the five days I spent there seeing Miranda at Moorpark College cost me more than the rest of my two months in the States. In addition to showing me her work in the teaching zoo, Miranda took me to see a Hindu Temple, Malibu Beach and Universal Studios, all somewhat iconic in their own ways. Because it was Labor Day weekend, the places were crowded and I felt like a tourist in a foreign land observing the strange customs of the natives. The waves of the Pacific Ocean seemed to be beckoning me to cross over to the other side, which is what I did the next day. It seemed that the most stressful part of the journey was getting through LA traffic to the airport and getting through security before the flight. I was thankful to be able to get a new ticket since I had made the silly mistake of not using my full name while booking my international ticket online. Not doing that again!

 

The day before my flight, the recruiting agency sent me an message to ask if I could arrive two days earlier. Since I was west bound instead of east bound I could not arrive earlier than I left – my powers of time travel are somewhat limited that way. I suspected that something was up, because they had previously insisted on my arriving later. So I skipped my extra day in Shanghai to see my sister and friends from Fuyang and went straight to the train station the next morning after arriving at 9:00 the previous evening. I took the train from a different station, closer than the one I had used earlier in June. I managed to get on the 10:00 train just before it left by dropping my bags and jamming my hand between the doors as they closed. I had not realized it was leaving so soon since there was no crowd for me to follow - which is what I usually do. When I sat down I seemed to be the only passenger in that car so I briefly enjoyed the feeling of being a majority - of one - until the next stop when I saw two men sitting in the front. At any rate, I was able to find the office in Hangzhou by taking a bus, a train, the subway and a taxi before noon.

 

On my arrival at the office, the first item of business confirmed my suspicions that all would not go as I expected. I was informed that I would be teaching at Zhejiang University of Technology near the center of the city instead the small private vocational technical college in the suburbs that I had applied for and been accepted three months earlier. I do not know if I could have refused, but they said that the university was the second most respected one in Zhejiang Province and they wanted the best teachers, so I was recommended to them. I wonder if that was really true or if it was merely flattery to get me to go along with change, but it worked. It seems that ZUT was unable to fulfill their usual number of teachers through a program that sends new graduates to them from Princeton and Harvard and desperate to fill the gap. So I was the first teacher to be recruited by this agency to work there and of course they welcomed the opportunity. As it is, I will be one of only six foreign English teachers instead of the eight that the university had requested.

 

The next item on the agenda was to go over the contract and sign it before I had time to go to see the campus or my apartment. At that point I was so exhausted and in need of a good sleep due to the time difference and loss of sleep on the plane, that all I wanted to do was get into a bed. I chose to go directly to the apartment instead of stay in a hotel so I was driven to my new apartment by private car. It is on the sixth floor without an elevator. (Most apartment buildings in China have only six floors, which is the maximum before they are required to have an elevator.) When I arrived, I met the administrator and the building manager who gave me the keys and showed me where it was. Fortunately it has air-conditioning since I was sweating profusely from the heat and the exertion of hauling my luggage to the top floor.

 

My first night I awoke to the sensation of the whole building swaying and I thought it must have been an earthquake, but after waking three more times, I realized the trembling must be caused by passage of heavy trucks on the busy street below. It would be interesting to find out what it would feel like in an actual earthquake, but I am willing pass up on that experience and hope I don’t find out. Fortunately this area does not get earth quakes like Szechuan Province in the eastern part of the country, otherwise this building may not have been here so long. The next morning I had to go get my health check repeated since the one I did three months ago was in Anhui province and would not be accepted by a public university in Zhejiang. I got a ride to the subway station with my friendly next door neighbor only to find out I had brought the wrong wallet which had only US dollars instead of Chinese Ren Min Bi to pay for my ticket. I found my way back to my apartment on foot, exchanged wallets and walked to another subway station several blocks away, and still arrived early to my meeting with my recruiter.

 

After going through the battery of about a dozen tests again, in about a half hour, I was glad this was socialized medicine, where I am treated very efficiently like a number instead of having to wait for an personal appointment. I then returned to the office by subway and found the boxes I had shipped from Fuyang in June and got them back up to my apartment where I began to unpack. The next two days I slept and rearranged the furniture to my liking. I could not figure out why the bed was in the living room area, until I moved it to the bedroom and found out the traffic noise was much louder, since it faced the street in front of the building. I am gradually getting used to sleeping through the constant background noise and the feeling of sleeping on Jell-O. A student named Alex was assigned to help me find my way around the campus and take me to the local shopping center. She was most helpful and I was able to get a lot of things done on my list – like the all-important internet connection.

 

On Sunday I found the location of the Hangzhou International Christian Fellowship on the map and found my way there by walking and subway. The congregation of foreigners (Chinese citizens are not allowed to attend) is made up mostly of students from various African countries. So the worship style is a mixture of contemporary songs, southern Black gospel and African rhythms which is a new experience for me. I have to admit that I dozed of listening to the American (white) teacher since his delivery was quite dry (in comparison) and I needed the sleep. It is a great encouragement to meet friendly people, many of whom have lived here many years. This is a spiritual benefit of living in a major city in China with a significant ex-patriot community, unlike Fuyang.

 

The next day was Mid-autumn Festival so I got my bicycle out of the shipping crate and put it back together. I then decided to go see West Lake, one of the most famous tourist sites in China. I rode around the lake and noticed how the causeways were thick with pedestrians as they walked across the lake and over the low arching bridges. On the far side of the lake I was surprised to find myself riding into the low hills between tea plantations that produce the best tea in China – according to the locals. I resolved to return another day when I have more energy to climb one of several mountain peaks on the west side of the city. Deep emerald green forest and well maintained gardens create the impression of a subtropical paradise. The lake is lined with the stately and classic architecture of luxury resorts, sumptuous restaurants and traditional tea houses. I noticed a traffic jam at Lei Feng Tower which was built to commemorate a tragic love story that had happened at this lake according to ancient mythology. Unfortunately they were charging an entrance fee so I decided I would wait until I have actually made some money here.

 

As I returned along the shoreline close to the downtown area I was seduced into stopping to watch the gondolas floating on the lake, the brightly lit dinner party boats and the various street performers that drew crowds. Although I had planned to make the trip in two hours, darkness arrived before I could tear myself away and begin my return to campus. I had brought a map to help guide me back, but in the dark I became hopelessly disoriented and had to stop several times to ask for directions. After getting various contradictory directions, I realized I was being sent to the other ZUT Campus which caused me to ride around in circles for a couple of hours. By the time I got back it was 9:00pm and I needed to find dinner quickly, so I went to the place called “Dirty Alley” to buy some street food as I often did at my previous school. By comparison, the conditions here are much cleaner than Fuyang but the fried noodles were not nearly as good to my taste.

 

I spent the last week catching up on sleep and trying to get my stuff organized in the available living space – an ongoing project. I was able to contact two of the veteran teachers (not Ivy Leaguers) from previous years who were very helpful in giving advice from several years of teaching here and elsewhere in China. I did not get my class schedule until Friday since it had to be revised for only six teachers. Although my contract is for a maximum of 20 hours, I was given 26 class hours to teach, and I was dismayed to find that the school will not pay overtime as is stated in my contract About half of my classes will be post-graduate students, and the rest will be first and second and third year students. About half of the classes will be at the old campus near downtown (which is across the street from my apartment) and the other half will be at the new campus, which is about an hour away by shuttle bus. My schedule requires that I do the two hour round trip commute four days each week.

 

On Saturday I was able to swap two of the classes which I have never taught before (Advanced Writing and Western Media) with a veteran teacher for more oral English classes and reduce my class hours to 24 per week. I also met the three new teachers who really are from Princeton and Harvard – in China, one never knows. As often happens when I move to a new location I picked up a local flu bug that I spent the weekend recovering from. Today is Monday and I taught my first class. When I arrived at the classroom I found I had stupidly left my memory stick in my computer at my apartment, so I returned to get it during the class break between the two sessions and my bike lock jammed. Other than these two minor disasters, I felt the class went as well as could be expected. I hope I am learning from my mistakes, since I am making so many of them.

 

As always I count on your prayers and Divine Providence to see me through the various obstacles and barriers that pop up as regularly as a video game - or a pinball game if you remember those. I am constantly amazed at what God has brought me through and stressing out over the new ones that I am facing each day. This is by far the biggest city I have lived in and the greatest teaching challenge that I have faced, “and all I have to do is follow.”

 

May His goodness and mercy follow you,

Tim

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from Tim Robertson, robertsontim66@gmail.com

Aug 17, 2014

Dear Friends and Family,

 

In a month’s time I will be occupied with my new classes at Yuying Vocational Technical College in Hangzhou and too busy to write. Since I have the time now I will keep up with my schedule of writing this monthly newsletter to stay in touch with all of you. I am now in Sequim, WA and staying in Stan and Patti Chapple’s basement apartment. They have graciously allowed me to store the boxes of books, clothing and leftovers from my previous life here. I have been sorting through the stuff to find some useful items that I can take back with me and adding a few others that I brought with me from Michigan. I am thankful for the free storage since it would hardly be worth paying good money for storage of detritus pressed down by time.

 

I look forward to the challenges and changes that I will face in Hangzhou and try not to form too many expectations that are sure to be altered by reality. I know the culture will be much different since Zhejiang is considered to the wealthiest province in China due to its proximity to Shanghai which is the largest city in the world and is governed as a separate municipality (one of four in China) rather than being part of a province. Since Anhui province is the poorest province in China (by per capita income), and Fuyang, my former city of residence, was probably the poorest part of Anhui, I will no doubt be experiencing a certain level of culture shock. Hangzhou has a subway system, connections by fast train and an international airport, not to mention a much higher cost of living. Although my salary will remain largely the same, I will not be able to live on 25% of it, and save the rest as I was able to do in Fuyang.

 

For that reason among others, I am considering taking on the additional responsibility of training other English teachers for Echo English, the recruiting agency with which I have signed my contract. The Academic Director has just sent me a job description as part of a proposal to teach other foreign teachers that they have hired to work in various places in China. (Most foreign English teachers only stay one or two years, so they are usually lacking in experience and training.) They seem to think that I am qualified and I am reluctant to try and convince them otherwise, although I definitely feel that way. I have not yet received a contract for that job, so I am waiting for more details before I commit to another new role for myself. Since I have not yet received my class schedule from the college, I am not sure whether I will have the time to commute across town by subway to put in four or five hours at the Echo office each week. It is likely that I will be teaching both first and second year students at the college which will require additional lesson preparation time. Being the only foreign English teacher on campus may also bring other duties and expectations that I am not currently aware of.

 

After being away for so long (especially from Stanton) it is interesting for me to look for the changes that have happened during my time in China. But the biggest differences are changes that have happened to me. I find myself noticing things that would not have attracted my attention before and seeing details that seem strange to my altered state of perception. For example, I have been noticing cemeteries which do not exist in traditional Chinese culture. As I went cycling through the fields and villages near Fuyang, I would sometimes stop at random points to count the burial mounds that I could see without turning around – usually between 20 and 30. Sometimes there were groups of 10 or 20 clustered together with black stone markers that stood three to four feet tall with personal details and poetry carved on it, but usually the brown conical mounds are scattered somewhat randomly through the small family plots of ground that provide subsistence to most rural village dwellers. Only close relatives can be depended upon to maintain the grave sites of their ancestors and this strengthens the filial bonds that bind families together with the land.

 

Tomb Sweeping Day (aka Qing Ming Festival, often translated as Chinese Memorial Day or Ancestor’s Day), was reinstated in 2008 as a national holiday and is held in April each year. My first impression was that it was celebrated to remind families of their duties to perform rituals for their ancestors as required by the teachings of Confucius. But on further research I found that the date was originally designated in 732 AD by the Emperor in the Tang dynasty in order to limit the time and money spent on expensive and extravagant ceremonies honoring departed family members. Now the concern of the government is that so much of the scarce fertile land is taken up by burial mounds that there is not enough land left for food production. The burial mounds of dark soil are also an obstruction to mechanized farming so that many small farms must use manual labor to till, plant and harvest the wheat in May and the corn in September.

 

Since Anhui is largely an agricultural province, the provincial government has recently begun to enforce the law against burying bodies. As part of the ban, police have been raiding local carpentry shops to destroy the coffins that are on sale for traditional burials. News stories (*see below) tell of elderly people killing themselves in order to be buried before the deadline of June 1st this year and thus escape the penalty of breaking the law and the necessity of cremation. With the announcement of changes to the residential registration system, 13 million people each year are moving from the rural areas into booming cities to get jobs, better education and health care. Many are reluctant to move as it will mean giving up the security of growing their own food and abandoning the tombs of their ancestors.

 

The loss of family members recently has made me more sympathetic to their concerns. After the burial of my mother in the cemetery next to my father I spent some time wandering among the headstones and noticing the names on them. Although I left Stanton right after my high school graduation in 1976, I saw surprised at how many names I recognized and remembered those people who I used to know. I found the graves of many former teachers, neighbors, paper route customers and church members among the markers that date as far back as Civil War dead. This being the only large hill in town, we would often come to “cemetery hill” to go sledding in the winter. Now I notice a sign the prohibits that activity out of concern for the danger of hitting grave stones and trees on the steep slope. When I visited once more before leaving I was struck by the wild flowers blooming around the edges of the gravesite and felt God had planted and caused them to grow for both of them.

 

Since that time I have been noticing the small green cemeteries in each town with small white headstones and colorful flowers and thinking how they express the traditional beliefs of Christians. Although Americans are known for highly valuing individualism and private property, they share the community space set aside for honoring the dead, while Chinese, known for their values of community and family, honor their dead privately on land that they do not own and are abandoning in large numbers. Perhaps that reflects the expectation of Christians that they will rise together to eternal life at the second coming of Christ, while the majority of Chinese traditionally believe in the reincarnation of individuals after they die. as taught by Buddhism. The only color at a gravesite in China is usually the red paper left from exploded firecrackers and remains of burned incense, “spirit money” and fake ingots of gold and silver for the next life, after which they will die again.

 

I am looking forward to living in Hangzhou, which is considered to be one of the most beautiful cities in China because of its natural scenery. Much of its reputation is due to the famous West Lake gardens which are pictured on the one-Yuan note and have been recreated in Japan and Korea. Another interesting feature is the Qiantang River which runs close to the Yuying College campus and is famous for having the highest tidal bore in the world which can be as high as 30 feet and travel up to 25 miles an hour inland from the East China Sea. The city is the capital of Zhejiang Province and is the fourth largest metropolitan area in China with a population of over 21 million people. I am looking forward to being able to cycling on top of the levy along the river as the tide changes and watching the “Silver Dragon” sweep up the river and into the harbor. Yes, they actually hold surfing competitions in the Qiantang River!

 

As you may have noticed, I am not one to take a lot of pictures, but I may have to change that and send along some to you in future newsletters. I have been looking at some of the pictures my mother gave me from the many photo albums that she kept of our large family. Many of them are of me as a young boy in the villages of the Ashaninka people where we lived on the headwaters of the upper tributaries of the Amazon River. There are some of the missionary boarding school in Tournavista, named after R. G. Letourneau who built the town and the school for MKs. Looking back, I can see many differences and similarities to what I am doing now. My father and mother went out as singles to the mission field where they got to know each other in a small Ashaninka village where they were both working. Dad was 32 when he married mom and they had 6 children, 5 of whom were born in Peru. As I go out alone to China, I feel a sense of following a pattern. I will live with the students on campus and enjoy the adventure of walking by faith.

 

I remember the old hymn sung at my mother’s funeral, “Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I’ve come.” (Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing)

Thank-you for remembering to pray for me as I seek to represent Christ.

Tim

 

P.S. *Article: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2639757/Elderly-Chinese-...

 

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Tim Robertson's posts about his time as an English teacher in Anhui at the Fuyang Teachers College are uploaded at: www.flickr.com/photos/ray_mahoney/9114089397/in/photostream, www.flickr.com/photos/ray_mahoney/8302698850/in/photostream, www.flickr.com/photos/ray_mahoney/14217075257/in/photostream; www.flickr.com/photos/ray_mahoney/9012874492/

 

Tuvo lugar en la residencia de la embajadora Julissa Reynoso una recepción para darle la bienvenida los 10 profesores y maestros uruguayos que participaron en el Programa Teacher Exchange, organizado por la Comisión Fulbright Uruguay.

 

Más información en spanish.uruguay.usembassy.gov/17072014.html

 

[U.S. Embassy photo: Juan Francisco Casal / Copyright info]

A couple takes a walk on a chilly winter night in Chilgok, South Korea

Tuvo lugar en la residencia de la embajadora Julissa Reynoso una recepción para darle la bienvenida los 10 profesores y maestros uruguayos que participaron en el Programa Teacher Exchange, organizado por la Comisión Fulbright Uruguay.

 

Más información en spanish.uruguay.usembassy.gov/17072014.html

 

[U.S. Embassy photo: Juan Francisco Casal / Copyright info]

Tuvo lugar en la residencia de la embajadora Julissa Reynoso una recepción para darle la bienvenida los 10 profesores y maestros uruguayos que participaron en el Programa Teacher Exchange, organizado por la Comisión Fulbright Uruguay.

 

Más información en spanish.uruguay.usembassy.gov/17072014.html

 

[U.S. Embassy photo: Juan Francisco Casal / Copyright info]

Tuvo lugar en la residencia de la embajadora Julissa Reynoso una recepción para darle la bienvenida los 10 profesores y maestros uruguayos que participaron en el Programa Teacher Exchange, organizado por la Comisión Fulbright Uruguay.

 

Más información en spanish.uruguay.usembassy.gov/17072014.html

 

[U.S. Embassy photo: Juan Francisco Casal / Copyright info]

Edson H. Edmunds • 1925 - 2007

 

Last night, I was completely shocked to come across a photo of this grave site online. Sadly, it didn't take long for me to find a corresponding obituary.

 

Four years before I made my dedication, Mr. Edmunds was my 7th grade English teacher, on whom I had a long, abiding crush. (OK... I was head over heels for him!) Grammar, spelling, and vocabulary took on new meaning. My feelings for him stoked my love for language, for writing, for English and French. He was the first to tell me I had any writing talent.

 

So there you have it. Now you know why I so often feel compelled to write (not so) short stories under my photos!

 

The nature of my affection for my dearest teacher has changed over time as I matured emotionally and spiritually, of course, but it has never diminished.

 

Oh, I knew Mr. Edmunds was getting on in years. He was several years older than my own father. Besides, none of us from the class of '76 are getting any younger. But his telephone number is still listed online in the White Pages. As a matter of fact, I had just been thinking of getting in touch with him. I wanted to tell him about being a grandma, and I really wanted him to see the photos of Bryn-Bryn here on Flickr.

 

As soon as this photo of his headstone confronted me, I was struck by grief. For now I cry freely, but I count myself fortunate for having known him ("Better to have loved and lost..."). I am also deeply grateful that several years after having been one of Mr. Edmunds' pupils, I began to study what the Bible says about those who are "sleeping in death" (1 Thessalonians 4:13; Ecclesiastes 9:5,11). Without that knowledge, I would be devastated.

 

I trust in Jehovah for the hope of seeing Mr. Edmunds and his lovely wife Marion again in His promised earthly Paradise through Jesus Christ. 'At that time, God will wipe out every tear from our eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore.' The reasons for such acute heartache will be eliminated forever. (Revelation 21:3,4)

 

"I have hope toward God,... that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous." — Acts 24:15

 

"Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life." — John 5:28,29

 

About the photo: I put together this tribute in memoriam using two images, one from the Amityville Record obituary and the other from the Find a Grave website. I composed the photo using free software by Rhapsoft called LiveQuartz.

For Flickr Lounge weekly theme: on the wall.

This is a small section of a notice board hanging on the wall in my office.

I just wonder should it be an English teacher, an Englishteacher or a teacher of English? :-)

Tuvo lugar en la residencia de la embajadora Julissa Reynoso una recepción para darle la bienvenida los 10 profesores y maestros uruguayos que participaron en el Programa Teacher Exchange, organizado por la Comisión Fulbright Uruguay.

 

Más información en spanish.uruguay.usembassy.gov/17072014.html

 

[U.S. Embassy photo: Juan Francisco Casal / Copyright info]

lookin good against this backdrop

Sophomore students in my ESL Business English oral class at the School of International Business on the Dongbei University of Finance and Economics campus, Dalian, China. SIB, DUFE

 

Class 15

Tuvo lugar en la residencia de la embajadora Julissa Reynoso una recepción para darle la bienvenida los 10 profesores y maestros uruguayos que participaron en el Programa Teacher Exchange, organizado por la Comisión Fulbright Uruguay.

 

Más información en spanish.uruguay.usembassy.gov/17072014.html

 

[U.S. Embassy photo: Juan Francisco Casal / Copyright info]

Class 13-T

Happy, wonderful students!

 

School of International Business (SIB) on Dongbei University of Finance and Economics (DUFE) campus, Dalian, China.

Tuvo lugar en la residencia de la embajadora Julissa Reynoso una recepción para darle la bienvenida los 10 profesores y maestros uruguayos que participaron en el Programa Teacher Exchange, organizado por la Comisión Fulbright Uruguay.

 

Más información en spanish.uruguay.usembassy.gov/17072014.html

 

[U.S. Embassy photo: Juan Francisco Casal / Copyright info]

Click the "All Sizes" button above (next, click on "Original Size") to read an article or to see the image clearly.

 

These scans come from my rather large magazine collection. Instead of filling my house with old moldy magazines, I scanned them (in most cases, photographed them) and filled a storage area with moldy magazines. Now they reside on an external hard drive. I thought others might appreciate these tidbits of forgotten history.

 

Please feel free to leave any comments or thoughts or impressions... Thanks in advance!

Tuvo lugar en la residencia de la embajadora Julissa Reynoso una recepción para darle la bienvenida los 10 profesores y maestros uruguayos que participaron en el Programa Teacher Exchange, organizado por la Comisión Fulbright Uruguay.

 

Más información en spanish.uruguay.usembassy.gov/17072014.html

 

[U.S. Embassy photo: Juan Francisco Casal / Copyright info]

It's been sunny all week -- fuckin' cold, but sunny.

 

I should have been spending my afternoons outside, taking pictures in the forest, going for walks, for drives... But it's the end of the semester, so instead my daily routine has been to get up early, shower, walk to school, prep, mark, teach, walk home and make dinner, walk back to school, prep, mark, plan, then walk home and go to bed. I used to wear my Bushido shirt proudly, happy to be a vassal at the service of my students. But this week my service has felt like servitude.

 

My Communications kids have balked these last two weeks at my attempts to ensure they're ready for their final, and I'm certain that fully half of them are going to completely blow it because they're not taking it seriously. (Guys: MULTI-fucking-paragraph composition! ONE paragraph is NOT going to cut it!) My grade eights are being pretty cool, but they're grade eights -- it's hard to fuck up an English eight exam.

 

But you know, it's not really the kids that have me feeling like my life is one of servitude rather than service. There have been administrative changes this year, and it's becoming clear that processes that used to be in place to help the at-risk kids (who seem to fill my classes in great numbers -- and not just my Communications classes) will not be there next year. In fact, many are gone this year! (And thanks for informing me of those changes, by the way. That's better than, oh, say, maybe my finding out about them three days before the end of the semester in a chance conversation with a colleague.) See, I used to LIKE being at my school all the time. It felt like a kind of home to me.

 

Benevolence, bravery, honour, justice, loyalty, veracity, politeness...

 

How am I to be benevolent when our leaders are cruel? How am I to be brave when I am surrounded by cowards who refuse to say to those above them, "Enough is fucking enough!"?

 

How can I exhibit both veracity and politeness?

 

And most importantly... When the fuck am I going to see daylight again?

Tuvo lugar en la residencia de la embajadora Julissa Reynoso una recepción para darle la bienvenida los 10 profesores y maestros uruguayos que participaron en el Programa Teacher Exchange, organizado por la Comisión Fulbright Uruguay.

 

Más información en spanish.uruguay.usembassy.gov/17072014.html

 

[U.S. Embassy photo: Juan Francisco Casal / Copyright info]

Tuvo lugar en la residencia de la embajadora Julissa Reynoso una recepción para darle la bienvenida los 10 profesores y maestros uruguayos que participaron en el Programa Teacher Exchange, organizado por la Comisión Fulbright Uruguay.

 

Más información en spanish.uruguay.usembassy.gov/17072014.html

 

[U.S. Embassy photo: Juan Francisco Casal / Copyright info]

Tuvo lugar en la residencia de la embajadora Julissa Reynoso una recepción para darle la bienvenida los 10 profesores y maestros uruguayos que participaron en el Programa Teacher Exchange, organizado por la Comisión Fulbright Uruguay.

 

Más información en spanish.uruguay.usembassy.gov/17072014.html

 

[U.S. Embassy photo: Juan Francisco Casal / Copyright info]

Tuvo lugar en la residencia de la embajadora Julissa Reynoso una recepción para darle la bienvenida los 10 profesores y maestros uruguayos que participaron en el Programa Teacher Exchange, organizado por la Comisión Fulbright Uruguay.

 

Más información en spanish.uruguay.usembassy.gov/17072014.html

 

[U.S. Embassy photo: Juan Francisco Casal / Copyright info]

Tuvo lugar en la residencia de la embajadora Julissa Reynoso una recepción para darle la bienvenida los 10 profesores y maestros uruguayos que participaron en el Programa Teacher Exchange, organizado por la Comisión Fulbright Uruguay.

 

Más información en spanish.uruguay.usembassy.gov/17072014.html

 

[U.S. Embassy photo: Juan Francisco Casal / Copyright info]

Tuvo lugar en la residencia de la embajadora Julissa Reynoso una recepción para darle la bienvenida los 10 profesores y maestros uruguayos que participaron en el Programa Teacher Exchange, organizado por la Comisión Fulbright Uruguay.

 

Más información en spanish.uruguay.usembassy.gov/17072014.html

 

[U.S. Embassy photo: Juan Francisco Casal / Copyright info]

Tuvo lugar en la residencia de la embajadora Julissa Reynoso una recepción para darle la bienvenida los 10 profesores y maestros uruguayos que participaron en el Programa Teacher Exchange, organizado por la Comisión Fulbright Uruguay.

 

Más información en spanish.uruguay.usembassy.gov/17072014.html

 

[U.S. Embassy photo: Juan Francisco Casal / Copyright info]

Tuvo lugar en la residencia de la embajadora Julissa Reynoso una recepción para darle la bienvenida los 10 profesores y maestros uruguayos que participaron en el Programa Teacher Exchange, organizado por la Comisión Fulbright Uruguay.

 

Más información en spanish.uruguay.usembassy.gov/17072014.html

 

[U.S. Embassy photo: Juan Francisco Casal / Copyright info]