A year in the life... @sarahindalian - Tumblr Blog

Fri 1st Aug: WE HAVE AIR CON

Had a really long Skype video chat with a lot of my friends in Australia yesterday night, which was great. Seeing people's faces and hearing their voices just isn't the same as reading their messages on Wechat, and it was nice to catch up, see what they're up to.

Today, our landlady came with some installation guys to our apartment to put an air conditioner in my room. She's also going to get a new remote for Patrice's (it's broken), and the best part is, it was completely free! I mean, you know, apart from the electricity it takes to run it. But yeah, she seems really nice.

Wed 30th July: Rollerblading

We went rollerblading last night, down at Olympic. It's been years since I last did it, but it was so much fun! Plus, since we know Jerry who's there sometimes, we didn't even have to pay the 10 kuai per person to hire blades! (Not that I would've minded paying, but he insisted.) Seb's only ever done it once in his life, but by the end of the night he'd improved a lot. It's a great way to spend a while, just enjoying the night air. And, as Darcy said, "If you can't stop, the stairs will stop you." So there's that, too.

Trying to figure out what I've been doing with all of my time. Still not entirely sure. It's all going too quickly.

Mon 28th July: Summer "Intensive"

Here's the thing: Summer Intensive classes started last week, which for me (different for everyone) meant two extra hours of work on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. There'll be thirteen days in total, and today was Day 4. I got last weekend off, too, which was great - spent the time sleeping, studying, eating, and watching TV (currently rewatching Torchwood). Now that literally everyone else in my Chinese class has either left the country ( :( ), or is switching to university study, my classes have more or less finished (I was offered a spot in the morning class, but couldn't take it because of work). I might still get a few classes once Sally's a bit more free (currently trying to get everyone's visas organised), but what I'm getting at is for a time that's supposed to be 'intensive', I have a surprising amount of free time.

So, what exactly am I doing with my abundant free time? I'm determined to be productive, so some of my time is being put towards individual study, and trying to really expand my vocabulary as much as possible before next semester starts in late August. Apart from study, I also found a brilliant (read: unintentionally hilarious) reality show called I Wanna Marry 'Harry', about a group of American women who are tricked into thinking they're competing on a dating show for Prince Harry. Truly the epitome of great television. (For anyone wondering, yes, I'm being sarcastic, but I actually do quite like watching it.)

Sat 26th July: 关系比能力 (Relationship VS Abillity)

The other day, I was talking to a Chinese friend about how people get opportunities in China vs in Australia. At first, I thought there was a pretty clear difference - in China, who you know is the most important, and in Australia, it's ability.

Then, of course, I found myself in the middle of a real-life example: a teacher knew a family who was looking for an English tutor. I wasn't interested, but I said I'd pass along the information to my friends. I chose one person to share the opportunity with, and it wasn't until my Chinese friend and I were talking about it that I realised what had happened. He asked me why the person I'd chosen wasn't necessarily my closest friend here, and I admitted that I'd thought about it, but decided that the girl needing a tutor would need someone with higher a higher level of Chinese. "So," my friend said, "Language is really important if you're in a country that doesn't share your language. Your ability directly affects how many opportunities you have."

In this case, I'd inadvertently placed a higher importance on one criterion over another: ability rather than relationship to me, although that was still a deciding factor (only someone I knew could have gotten the job). But here's the thing: my Chinese friend? He would've made the same decision. So maybe our two countries aren't as different as I thought.

Mon 21st July: Where does the time go?

So somehow, I've been here for six months already. Crazy crazy crazy. What's been happening? Let's see... well, I'm still studying Chinese, although for now we've moved to a different branch of SJ's - it's actually more convenient for me, because I can catch a bus there from my house. Plus, we've been studying with Ant, Sian, and Rui Cong (three really cool people from Thailand). That's one thing I didn't think about before coming to Dalian - the amazing foreigners I would meet. Take Sian, for example - he speaks Thai, English, French, and now is studying Mandarin. Crazy. It was funny, actually - when hanging out with them as well as Nan, another really cool Thai girl, it was a really interesting mix of Thai, Mandarin and English. Whenever something in Thai needed to be translated, it would generally be Nan to translate into Mandarin, or Sian for English. Bilingual/Multilingual people are just so amazing.

Anyway, I'm still working with New Century, but Summer Intensive classes have just started. Relatively few students, because a lot of families use summer to go on holidays etc., but I have two classes. The first one, with Lemon, has two girls and a boy (about ten years old), and is all about creating interest in learning English through music. Today, we started teaching Country Road Take Me Home by John Denver (I didn't realise I knew it, but I could sing the whole chorus before even listening to it). So that's really fun. Then, the second class is 2B, with two boys. Very cute. On the one hand, I'd love a few more kids, so you could really have proper competitions, but it's really great for the kids - they never get bored, because they spend so much time actually directly involved, no matter what you're doing. Plus, another good thing about Summer classes - sometimes, with the younger classes, if there's not enough kids it can be hard to think of enough content to fill the time, but because there's only thirteen lessons instead of twenty-four, there's more content to cover in each class, which gives you more to work with. Just having six words can be a little boring if the kids are smart (these kids seem quite bright), but having six words, and a few phrases, and another fill in the blanks page? Fantastic.

Anyway, from Monday to Friday I still get to sleep in (don't start until 10:20am), and the afternoons are mine (I get home from Chinese class around 3pm-3:30pm). So, I'm pretty happy with how everything's worked out. And for the next four weeks, this is my life. Oh, and we get next weekend off from teaching. Yay!

Fri 27th June: Requirements

So apparently if you want to get a Visa extended in China, you have to have a health checkup. To say the least, it was... interesting. (Also at 474 kuai more expensive than we were expecting, but if it gets us a Visa, so be it.)

Basically, Lachy, Darcy and I went to this big official health building, and despite the fact that it didn't open until 8:30am, when we got there twenty minutes early, the waiting room was already full. We ended up being numbers 78-80, but the wait wasn't that long - they were fairly efficient! Still, it was the longest part of the process. We had five different tests we had to do - for each one, you had to go to a different room. The people were fairly helpful about pointing us in the right direction, so it was fairly straightforward. Not a fan of blood tests, but it was relatively painless. We also had to have an x-ray, which was extremely fast. My favourite, however, was the eye test. The guys told me they had to read off the board. Mine was a little different. I walked in, and, noticing my glasses, the lady asked me what kind of sight I have (not sure if she said long- or short-sighted, but it was something along those lines). I told her I can read books, but not far away, and then she said that I was done. Brilliant.

We have to go back next Tuesday to pick up the results, and then after that we should be able to get our Visas relatively quickly (Darcy and I have already given in our passports, photos etc. to the person who is sorting it out for us). So that'll be good!

I think I've mentioned previously that I planned to sit the HSK4 exam next month (for explanation of what the HSK is, either go back through this blog or google it). For various reasons (work commitments, lack of exam times during the summer), that isn't happening anymore. However, I have holidays in October, and there's definitely exams then, so I've locked that in. I originally planned to sit the HSK4, but with three additional months to study and prepare and a talk with my teacher, I'm considering an alternative. The jump from level 4 to level 5 is quite large - an additional 1200 or so words - so I'm not sure that I would feel comfortable sitting the HSK5. However, it's what I want to work towards to, and Sally (my teacher) suggested that if I want to sit the 5, I could sit the 4 as well, and at least that way I'd get to aim high but guarantee a good result at the same time. It'll cost more, obviously, but it's something to think about. No concrete decisions until closer to the exam date, though, although I found some previous exam papers online, complete with mp3s so I can properly practice the listening component, so I'm going to do one HSK4 test every week for the next month, and use that as a way to track my progress.

June Catchup: B for busy

The past few weeks have been hectic. I know I seem to say that a lot, but it's true. I have three hours of Chinese classes every Monday to Friday morning, and then an hour of work on Wednesday afternoons, and all day on Saturday and Sunday. Now, some of you (if anyone still even reads this) are probably thinking, "But that leaves four whole afternoons, so it's not like you're -that- busy." Which is true. But I tend to fill those with doing things like washing clothes and similar chores, homework, and watching TV, which is my way of unwinding. I finished my Friends marathon - I'm now marathoning Orange is the New Black (great show full of amazing female characters, definitely recommend it), and also catching up on Teen Wolf (couldn't bring myself to watch the end of last season for reasons I won't spoil here, but the new season's started so it's time). Other shows include:

Switched at Birth: awesome, about two girls who were switched at birth and one of them is deaf

The Fosters: also awesome, shockingly about kids that are in foster homes but then one gets taken in by this amazing family

Pretty Little Liars: season four just started and OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS SHOW

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: talk-show where John Oliver humorously discusses recent worldwide news

Graceland: Drama series about undercover FBI agents who share a house together (stars Aaron Tveit, which to be honest is the only reason I started watching, and the only reason I continue to watch, but he's the only reason you need, I promise)

If anyone watches any of them, feel free to send me a message because I'm always keen to discuss them.

Sat 7th/Sun 8th June: Mid-Semester Exams

Exam week for my students means a relatively easy weekend for me. After giving each kid a speaking test, if there's any time left in the lesson, we either play games and review, or they finish their written tests. One girl, 3B number 3's Lisa, told me that I "look ke ai - cute!", and I found out that the reason one of my Sunday 2As, Jack, (who was not the only one to forget his English name during the test) generally seems to take longer to learn anything in class is because he hasn't started school yet. So, naturally, he's now one of my favourites. I knew that many of my kids are really little, but it always surprises me when I hear them say "I'm five!" and they're actually right. Or, like on Sunday, when one of my 3B number 2's girls told me that she's six. Six! And they can answer questions like "What can you see?" and "Is a lemon sweet?" Amazing. These kids really do inspire me - they are a constant reminder to never let someone else's view that you're too young stop you from achieving incredible things.

Fri 6th June: Obsession (Language Learning links)

In what seems like far too short a time, suddenly we're essentially a week into June, Ajhon has left us to go back to Australia (we're really gonna miss you!), and I've regained my unhealthy obsession with learning three different languages at once.

Perhaps I should explain. Obviously, one of my main passions is languages - speaking them, listening to them, writing them, reading them, reading about them, translating them, interpreting them... anyway, my problem is that as I currently stand, I have one fluent language (English), one language where my proficiency is at a conversational level (Chinese), and three other languages that I really want to learn - Auslan (Australian Sign Language), Russian, and Italian.

So why these languages? I'm not entirely sure, but I think it's because they're all so vastly different to each other. I also like the idea of being able to communicate with people all over the world, and I like challenges... but I don't know why Italian is more interesting to me than, say, French, or why Russian is more appealing to me than German (which apparently is objectively easier for native English speakers to become proficient in). Anyway, I figure if I can speak languages that are very different from each other, it will also be easier to not get words mixed up (for example, I'm never going to hear привет (privet, hello) and think "Oh, that's totally Chinese"). But here's the problem... I want to know them all now. But I'm pretty sure if I try to learn them all at once... I'm going to run into some problems. Namely, time management, and the fact that no matter what, Chinese is my main focus, so I'll never be able to devote as much time to the others as I want to, but also just I really don't think trying to learn four languages at once is a very good idea. Still, I've found a few sites that are not only free but also really helpful for anyone who wants to learn different languages, and I thought I'd share:

1) Duolingo.com - offers courses in Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese

2) Memrise - doesn't seem to work properly in China, but offers courses in over a dozen (possibly over two dozen) languages

3) www.russianforfree.com - as you can guess, offers courses in Russian.

I hope someone finds these useful. Even if it's just numbers or "My name is...", you never know when knowing a phrase in another language could come in handy!

Tues/Wed/Thurs 5th June: Summer?

It's now officially Summer, so to commemorate the changing of the seasons, instead of wearing jeans and a jacket every day, I've been wearing tights and skirts, and shirts (and a jacket, or alternatively, a three-quarter length sleeve shirt). Not exactly what I'd be wearing in an Australian Summer... and I love it! Of course, at some point, I'm going to have to swap the tights for shorts, and the jacket for t-shirts, but I'm enjoying it for as long as I can, and according to the weather forecast, it won't get above 23 degrees for at least another ten days so it's looking pretty great.

Because people have to go to uni for Visa requirements (I won't go into details because to be honest I don't actually know any), we don't have our normal SJ's classes. Instead, I've been going to a 口语 (speaking) class from 8:50am to 10:30am, and then a 语法 (grammar) class from 10:30am-12pm. It's been really interesting, because I have two different teachers that I don't normally have, so I get to see their differing methods of teaching/learning, and on top of that, the grammar class is a higher level than what we usually learn, so it's really interesting. For example, the last lesson we looked had had words such as trumpet, steal, break, glass, criminal, law case, and display window. I'm sure you can guess what the text's story was about.

Oh yeah, I got two compliments today - the first one from my taxi driver, who commented that "I'm very white - it looks good." (Makes more sense in Chinese. Also when you've been around Chinese people for a while, so you start to get used to 'white' being equated to beauty.) Then, after grammar class, my teacher said my pronunciation is really good, and she thinks I could try a harder class next semester. Hopefully I'll be sitting the HSK4 exam sometime in July if I get the opportunity, so that'll be a good indication of where I'm actually at. Also, guess which compliment meant more to me? (Hint: it's the one I actually had control over.)

Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon 2nd June: Children's Day/Dragon Boat Festival

Guess who had this weekend off? Yeah, that's right - pretty much everyone! There were two celebrations - Children's Day, and also the Dragon Boat Festival, where everyone eats zongzi (rice cooked inside this leave/bamboo stuff, sometimes with something else inside such as meat, fruit, dates, etc.) and wears coloured wrist bands, usually red because it's considered to be extremely lucky - most Chinese people like red. One of my teachers said that most brides here wear red dresses on their wedding day, not white, which I thought was really cool.

Anyway, so how did I choose to spend my weekend off? Basically, doing as little as humanely possible. I slept in, watched TV, did a bit of study, ate food... and that's pretty much it, really. It was wonderful.

Oh, and then to end the weekend, Seb surprised me with three beautiful coloured bands - one anklet, and two for my wrists. They're supposed to bring good luck, which I'm not going to say no to, but also, they go with pretty much my entire wardrobe, so they're now going to become a part of my everyday jewellery.

Hi Sarah, Nice blog. I always check back every week to see if you've updated. Have you ever thought about making a video log about your time in China? Also what city are you in in China?

Hey, thank you so much! To be honest, I don't really have experience with video making (and the experience I do have is quite terrible), so it's not something I've really put any thought into. Still, I'll consider it. Maybe a tour of Olympic... hmm... that could be interesting... ok, so now I'm thinking about it! :)

Thurs 29th May 2014: Fitness (Ha)

Bet you never thought that would be an important enough part of my life to deserve its own blog post. But I never thought anything interesting would happen to do, so I guess we were both wrong.

After training at work today, Andy (a foreign teacher who's been at the school for about four years now) ran a seminar on fitness, which was actually really interesting. He made a point that I hadn't really heard before - the idea that fitness is relative. For example, a grandmother can do her shopping and run for the bus if necessary. That's the level of fitness she requires to live the life she desires, so she is fit. A boy plays on a soccer team, and often goes running. He plays well, and can do everything he wants to, so he is fit. If you can do everything you want to do, then you are fit. It's an interesting concept. He also gave us some simple 'training' we can do every day, in order to improve our fitness. To be honest, most of them I would call stretching, rather than training, but still, it's something I'm going to try. We also have videos (which is great, because even with a list of the activities, I'm probably going to forget a lot of them).

Then, tonight, I finally bought a football! (Soccer ball) So, this Sunday hopefully, a few of us are going to go play on some nearby fields.

Wed 28th May: 好久不见 (Long Time No See!)

Apologies for being absent for... almost two weeks? Whoops. Things have been hectic, what with uni, study, work prep, work, hanging out with friends, and then relaxing time (I've started marathoning Friends).

My uni classes have been great, but they're coming to an end, which, you know, is a shame... although I will enjoy not having to leave the house before seven o'clock every morning. No matter how good the classes are, getting up that early is just plain awful. When I walk to the bus stop, the people at the fish market are just crushing the ice and setting up their stalls. The fruit shops aren't even open yet. It's madness, I tell you. Madness!

Work has been pretty good recently. The kids, for the most part, are really great, and I've been introducing a lot of new games, so they're pretty easily excited. Plus, we get next weekend (and the Wednesday after) off, because there's another festival, so it'll be a nice break.

Now that things are starting to calm down again, I promise I'll be back to posting every day. (Or at least most days - I don't want to make promises I can't keep.)

Hi Sarah, where can we see some photos of your time in China? What is your accommodation like?

Hi! If you scroll through my blog, occasionally I posted some photo sets. I'm afraid I'm a bit lazy when it comes to picture taking, to be completely honest. As far as accommodation goes, it ranges from a two-person apartment to a four-person, just depending on how things work out. Since I'm in a two-person, I'll talk about that. Apartments are fully furnished, although you can always buy anything you want to add. Our apartment has two rooms (huge), a kitchen (not huge, but we don't use it that often), a bathroom, a closed-in balcony to hang wet clothes, and a living room. It's quite nice, really - having a space that you can do whatever you want with is really cool. I've found that adding your own little touches really help you feel like it's your home. For example, I've got posters on my wall. It's really close to heaps of great restaurants and shops, as well as a fresh fruit and veg (and also seafood) market, as well as a few different bus stops, so you can go pretty much anywhere!

Fri 16th May: First uni Chinese class

So today, Darcy and I started our Chinese classes at a Dalian university. In the class with us are three Russian girls, two girls from Thailand, and two guys from Japan. Never before have I seen people from four countries who speak four completely different languages able to communicate so easily! We had two one hundred minute classes (with a couple of minutes break halfway through each, and then a thirty minute break between the classes). The first was focussed on speaking, and the second was listening. In a week, we have three listening classes, four general grammar classes, two speaking classes, and one reading class (which apparently is the hardest).

So, how was it? In a word, different. Everyone there was there to learn, there's no doubt about it. Everyone worked hard, and paid attention, and asked intelligent questions. In that respect, it was a great class. The only setback is, the class is more advanced than what we've been learning, so we're a bit behind. There are characters we can't read or pronounce, questions we don't know the answer to, and in the listening class, recordings that are much faster than what we're used to. Even though we're only going to be there for two weeks, I'm going to use this as an opportunity. I'm going to think of it as an intensive class. I'm not used to being at a lower level than the people I'm studying with, so it's going to push me. I have work this weekend, but I'm going to use my free time to try to catch up on the speaking textbook, and listen to the next recording so I'm prepared for the listening class (the textbook comes with a CD) and really get a grip on everything.

Thurs 15th May: New places

Firstly, Emma - yes, it is practise with an 's'. Practice with a 'c' is a noun.

Anyway, China introduced a new law this year, which means that we have to attend a Chinese university for at least two weeks. Darcy and I are joining a class together, so this morning we had to find our way there, to meet with a guy from administration. We knew which bus we had to catch, but once we got there, it took asking a few people for directions to find the university (and then a lot of walking to find the right building). But, we found it eventually! So that was a relief.

In the afternoon, we had another training session at New Century. Each week, two teachers explain a few different games/activities that we can use in our classes. Most of the time, it's the foreign teachers who have to act out the new activities, which can get a little embarrassing, but doing helps with remembering, and if we can't take a little bit of embarrassment, teaching is going to be hard.

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