First two weeks in the Mainland

This is a picture of Jilin city with a population of about 2 million, which is rapidly growing, though apparently not even as much as many of the southern cities.




Although I was unsure about my decision to come for the first week or two, I now understand more and more of what the Lord's plans were, especially now that more and more of the students are asking me questions about who we are and why we can't marry or get a job, etc.. Interestingly, after I tell them that we cannot marry, rather than asking about the sacrifice of celibacy like in the States, the question is "What do you your parents think about that? Do they support you?"  For Paul who is an only child, they can't even comprehend it. 


Teaching English here (at Jilin Medical College in Jilin, China; several hours north of Beijing) has been fantastic and has provided more than my fair share of cultural experiences, especially since we can ask them to write essays about whatever we want, like Chinese customs, Chinese legends, the education system, etc.  Learning about their education system has certainly been the most interesting.  Their system is to basically be drilled throughout both regular and higher education rather than to think critically, but they certainly know how to put the effort into it.  Even in college, their schedule is basically 8-12 and 1:30 to 5pm classes everyday and sometimes even with mandatory study halls.  Thus, they were very confused by the notion of "extracurriculars" and their importance in getting into a college, since for them basically everything is determined by grades and a college entrance exam, for which they spend three years of high school preparing.   The shortcomings of this system have been very obvious in the lack of creativity and spontaneity in class and their need to always have a "topic."  But this has also made me really love and appreciate our own emphasis on creativity, change, and critical thinking that I believe you can't really find anywhere else in the world.


Although seeming to be sort of "contained", the students are wonderful, and we became instant celebrities from the very start.  They are basically always ready and willing to sacrifice anything to be with us after class, and they constantly want to take pictures of us and with us.  One of our outings was this Friday to a Karaoke place, where they tried to get us to sing a bunch of girly songs before we finally found the Beatles and sang "Hey Jude".  I've also tried to teach them "Rocketman", but it ended up just being me singing solo in class without knowing all of the words.


Some of the culture shock have been in things like eating octopus, jelly fish, chicken feet, (and many other dishes which I have now learned not to ask about), having the water shut off randomly for four days on the campus without any notices, seeing Taichee (sp?) practiced anywhere and everywhere in large numbers, and also a strange practice of walking backwards and of continuously clapping.  To them, though, we're the most interesting thing they've seen all year, and they all blatantly turn their heads in whatever place we enter.