Thanksgiving has come and gone…

I spent lots of time shopping, cooking, and baking on Thursday.
Thankfully, people came early enough that everyone could lend a hand when it came to putting it all together.

We had wine, juice, chicken (we bought it already cooked), cornbread, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, honey glazed carrots, cranberry sauce, dried cranberries, stuffing, bread, salad, cookies, brownies, pumpkin bars, apple crumble, and my biggest accomplishment- pumpkin pie. It was my first ever attempt at pie crust or any kind of pie. I don’t have any real measuring tools, so I just had to guess at amounts, and I also have a tiny toaster oven- not really the ideal size for pies! I’m not going to lie- it turned out pretty well, I think.

So Thanksgiving was great. There were 8 people over here and we ate lots and talked even more. I had a fantastic time.

Today, our regional conference began. The meetings and such are all starting tomorrow, but everyone arrived, had dinner, and then went out to Liu San Jie Square this evening.

The Square has changed a lot since last year, as has all of Yizhou, but I think I’ll save that for a later post. They still have bumper cars though, so that’s a load of fun. I’m terrible at driving those things!! I’m glad that Kyle was willing to drive. It was a good time.

Anyway, so we went out for tea, coffee, and juice afterwards and it was a good time. However, Kate and I were really enjoying ourselves and she hadn’t even finished her drink when everyone decided it was time to go, so we headed out. Unfortunately, I really really really enjoy having lots of people to talk to- but since we’re hosting the conference, we stay at home and they all stay in a hotel. I have to say that I’m really quite depressed that they all get to hang out in the hotel and talk while I came back here alone, like most other nights. I’m now used to having this apartment to myself, but for the most part, I don’t enjoy that. I like being with other people a lot. I’m on a strange line between extrovert and introvert…I don’t like being the center of attention at all, I like to avoid that, but I feel happy being involved with a group of people and I have discovered in the past year that I actually get incredibly offended and sad (no matter how hard I try to control these emotions!) when I feel as though people are having a good time while I’m alone and not enjoying being by myself. It is, I know, something that I need to adjust to, and for the most part I have. I just feel like a blog on the internet is somewhere that I can vent these frustrations. I don’t know why I think that, but whatever.

I’m full of energy after spending time with people all day and not ready to sleep at all, so I’m making the brownies that we need for our snack during our meeting tomorrow. Kate and I forgot to bake them earlier today, so I figured I’d just do it now since I can’t sleep at the moment.

Tomorrow morning, I’ve got to get up and prepare some things for breakfast and bake some blueberry muffins.
After this weekend, Thanksgiving and the conference will be over and I’m pretty sure I’ll have used up all of the baking mixes I have here. That’s kind of a disappointment because I can’t get any more in Yizhou.
However, it’s great to be able to share good meals with other people. It makes it even more enjoyable, I think.
I love the combination of good people and good food. You really can’t often go wrong with that.

P.S. In the market today, I saw them grab a dog by the neck with some metal thing and grab a bag- they beat the dogs to death in a bag before preparing them for cooking. I almost cried. I know the dogs are for eating, but I’ve never watched one as it’s about to be killed. Absolutely heartbreaking.
I suppose I feel that way about all animals, but I don’t often see them as they’re about to reach their end- especially in such an utterly brutal way.
I will never forget that.

They do eats dogs in China.

They especially them them down here in Guangxi.

At the market, I often play with the little puppies. The big dogs I leave alone. They look sad and as though they are treated cruelly.

It wasn’t until recently that I discovered that even the little pups are eaten.

Disgusting, but terribly true.
I have gotten used to the meat and whole animal carcasses for sale at the market, but I still am disturbed by the juxtaposition of the live animals sharing close quarters with the dead of their same species.

In a couple of days, I’ve got to cook something that’s kind of like Thanksgiving dinner. Thankfully, Kate is helping out. Who knows how this will turn out? I really don’t know. Well, there will be food and that’s what really matters.
Thanksgiving is all about hanging out with people and eating anyway. Mmmmm… my mouth waters at the thought of a Thanksgiving meal.
Last year, we were at Pizza Hut in Nanning for Thanksgiving. Certainly not traditional in any way. Ugh.

This weekend, Kyle and I had some engagement photos taken by an older woman who lives on the 4th floor of my building. She’s a photographer and she’s pretty good at it. She just got a digital camera the day before taking our photos, so she used digital and regular film. My friend/coteacher, Mary also came along and took some shots with her digital camera. I’ve posted all of the photos here on Flickr.
Also, I have some pretty sweet photos of Kate and I and I am doing something for Kyle’s Christmas gift. (ha ha) But those photos have to be kept hidden for the moment. If you’re interested in seeing them, email me (hunt.megan@gmail.com) and I can email you an invitation to see them on Flickr.

In other news…. wedding planning is going… well, I guess.
I bought my dress. Well, I picked it out and paid the money for it, but my mom had to do the actual ordering at the shop. Once again, if you’re interested in photos, send an email because I can’t post them where Kyle will see them.
We’re also coming up with a list of potential songs for the ceremony (we’re thinking about not going completely traditional there) and also for reception. If you’ve got any suggestions, I’d love to hear them!
I also just spent what I consider to be an obscene amount (although it really isn’t) on makeup that I ordered online. I figure that I need some nice stuff since the stuff here is really cheap and horrific and I’ll be needing to have decent makeup for my wedding anyway…might as well get it now. The sad bit is that I realized that even though I just spent a lot, I don’t really have all the makeup I’ll need. It’s like a vicious trick. You can never quite have everything you need without spending loads of money. I do love makeup though. I can’t wait to be back in the States where I’ll be able to try some on and just buy nice makeup without having to wait my entire lifetime for it to arrive! It’s supposed to get here on December 26th. A Christmas present to myself, I guess. I haven’t worn makeup in ages (as is sadly evident in the engagement photos where I happened to be wearing…none! What was I thinking??) So I’ve decided that it’s really necessary to have at least a little bit of nice stuff so that I can put it on and feel good about the way I look.

In other news, the regional conference is this weekend. Since we’re hosting it, all 14 Amity teachers/friends of Amity will be arriving and spending a short time here. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again. Hopefully they’ve all got good stories to tell and interesting teaching suggestions.

That’s all for now!

P.S. I had completely forgotten that ‘My Fair Lady’ is nearly 3 hours long…and I showed it to my British Literature class yesterday. (They’re studying Pygmalion this week) Ugh. Torture. Pure torture.
And then, after it finished at 5.35, I then had to go home, get some things done, then go back to show ‘Back to the Future’ at 7.30 for film club.
I love films, but 5 hours is complete overkill. I was not particularly happy last night.

Here’s the Brit Lit midterm I gave my students. Not very tough, really.
See how much you know….

Multiple Choice
(2 points each)
Circle the letter before the correct answer.

1. Who wrote Pride and Prejudice?

A. Jane Eyre
B. Jane Austen
C. Charlotte Bronte
D. Elizabeth Bennet

2. What language was the Canterbury Tales written in?
A. Old English
B. Middle English
C. Modern English
D. Latin

3. How many lines are in a Shakespearian sonnet?
A. 10
B. 8
C. 20
D. 14

4. Who wrote the Holy Sonnets?
A. William Shakespeare
B. John Milton
C. John Donne
D. John Keats

5. Which of these is a poet from the 17th Century?
A. Daniel Defoe
B. William Wordsworth
C. Jane Austen
D. John Milton

6. What is a rhyme scheme?
A. The pattern of syllables in a poem
B. The pattern of rhyming words
C. A trick that poets play on readers
D. The number of lines in a sonnet

7. What is the pseudonym of Charlotte Bronte?
A. Acton Bell
B. Currier Bell
C. Ellis Bell
D. pseudonym? What’s that?

8. Who did Elizabeth Bennet marry?
A. Mr. Darcy
B. Mr. Rochester
C. Mr. Bingly
D. Mr. Wickham

9. Who is the “madwoman in the attic”?
A. Blanche Ingram
B. Bessie
C. Bertha Mason
D. Mrs. Reed

10. A Gothic novel does NOT include which of the following:
A. Ghosts
B. A host of golden daffodils
C. Romance
D. Supernatural events

Fill in the Blank
(3 points each)
Write the missing information on the line.

1. John Keats wrote ________________________.

2. Romeo and Juliet was about a feud between ______________ and _____________.

3. ________________ wrote “She Walks in Beauty”.

4. _________________ was one of the Romantic Poets.

5. Emily, Anne, and _________________ were three sisters who were all writers.

6. Jane Eyre is a _________ novel.

7. William Shakespeare is famous for writing sonnets and ___________.

8. In Paradise Lost, the first man and woman created were named ________ and _______.

9. _____________ wrote many books about women and marriage.

10. A famous novel about Satan and the fall of man was written by ______________.

Essay
(25 points each)
Choose 2 of the following essays to answer. Make sure you clearly label which two you are answering. If you answer more than one, you do not get extra credit. I will only read the first two responses you write.
Write your response on the back of this paper. You may not write more than you can fit on the back. If you make a mistake, you may ask for a new piece of paper, but you may not write more than fits the back, so use your space wisely!
In your answers, please show me that you have done some outside research to find information that I haven’t given you in class.

1. What is feminism and how does it apply to any of the literature we’ve read?

2. Explain what is happening in the poem that we read by John Donne- “The Flea”. What is the poem about? How do you know that?

3. Explain the symbolism in Wordsworth’s poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”.
Where is the symbolism found? What does it represent?

I Wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed–and gazed–but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

4. What are the rules for writing sonnets? How would you go about writing one?

5. Why is The Canterbury Tales an important piece of literature? Why do we still read it today?

For some reason these past two weeks have been terribly difficult on me.

Stress?
Lack of sleep?
Anxiety?

Perhaps none of these; perhaps all three.

I am frequently finding myself busy, which I quite enjoy, but this frustration comes in when I’m finding that this busyness is all in vain. It’s often unproductive, or in the worst cases, counterproductive.
Even the most basic wedding plans I’ve made are being questioned after I thought they were set. I’m a horrific decision maker, so it’s hard enough for me to make a decision once…if I have to make a decision again, I’m basically done for!
Planning for a Thanksgiving dinner (sans turkey, of course) and for the regional conference (the weekend after) really shouldn’t be all that complicated, but I’m finding both to be troublesome, since I’ve managed to screw up both.
How?
That’s the same question I keep asking myself. I have made it all too much work and then that makes me even angrier when it doesn’t work out.
I really should take the Chinese motto “mei guanxi!” (”It doesn’t matter!”) to heart and forget about it.
Well, I’ve tried. I really have, but things are just getting to me. Mostly my own mistakes, though.
Important people in Amity (much more important than me, at least) were here for a visit (Liu RuHong and Mick, for those of you who might know), and I think I made even that more stressful on myself. I had to clean my apartment (like they would look in the drawers and under the couch anyway!!!) and then they finally arrived Monday night and came over to meet with me from 9-10. The next day, I had four periods of class in the morning, library time and lunch with them, two more periods of class, and then more talking with them, then a banquet and more talking at Kate’s place again….until about 10 pm. I realized that I didn’t have a lesson plan for my Brit Lit class (this afternoon), so I set my alarm for 6 so I could work one out before getting ready and leaving for my morning class after 9.

I messed up the alarm and didn’t get up until after 8.
Of course.

Frantic scrambling, teaching, a co-teachers meeting, library time (during which my upset sophomores came in to talk about their exams), a late lunch, then 30 minutes before I had to head to class.

Honestly, the lesson worked out fine. The students were confused by the plot of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, so we spent the majority of the time going over it anyway.
No real need to freak out, but I did anyway. Now I’ve just got to figure out what to do tomorrow for that class!

Speaking of class, I gave a bunch of exams last week.
My sophomores did NOT perform the way that I expected them to. I was incredibly disappointed and largely very angry. It was a simple two minute speech! So many errors and so many who didn’t even reach the 1 minute 30 second mark. I was quite upset and told them so yesterday. So basically, it was a roomful of unhappy people after that. Tuesday was not my day.

I’ve still got to finish marking my Brit Lit exams. Fun. I did the multiple choice/fill-in-the-blank…. I just have to do the hard part now- the essays!

Anyway, so this is all to say that I’ve been terribly stressed about everything…money, the future, the present, food, clothes, my weight.
It needs to end at some point. I’m sure it will, but goodness. I might lose my mind before then.

Anyway, I’ve got to go. I have things to do!

I forgot to mention in the previous post…
When I was visiting Melinda at her teaching practice, I asked her when she was going to be home again and when I could visit my little kitten, Maeby.

She informed me of some terrible news.

Apparently Maeby went missing a couple of days ago.

I’m really quite sad about this. I know that she didn’t live in my apartment (not since the flea incident at least!), but I visited her at least once a week and it was really great to have my own little kitten to play with and to watch as she got bigger and bigger.
So if anyone in southern China sees a little calico cat with a red collar and a bell, please catch her!

I hope she comes back….

This past Sunday, Kate and I went and visited Lizzy, a student from the Chemistry Department, at her teaching practice.
Lizzy is particularly interested in English, so she spends a lot of time asking us questions and hanging out in the English library or cooking in Kate’s apartment.
During the last year of their education here, all of the students are required to go out for teaching practice for 5 weeks. It’s a bit like student teaching back in the States, although, to be honest, these students get a whole lot less practice in!
Lizzy had found a lot of students who are extremely interested in English and we went to a classroom to introduce ourselves to them. What followed afterwards was a flurry of photographs and “Hello”s.

After that, we walked around the city a bit, it’s Luo Cheng, a city that seems to be similar is size and development to Yizhou, but Lizzy told me that it’s actually considered to be a part of Yizhou. We saw a new building at the best middle school in town (not the one Lizzy’s teaching at). The classrooms looked really impressive (at least for schools in this area). We also saw some statues and the outside of what is apparently a museum. We didn’t go inside, but I thought it might have been interesting.

Monday morning, I met up with one of my former students, Melinda.
She took me over to XiaJian, an area of Yizhou that’s about 15 minutes from here if you take a bus. I got to see the school she’s at and meet some of the friendly teachers in the English Department. This school is significantly smaller than the one in Luo Cheng, but the surrounding area certainly is much more beautiful here.

After seeing the school, I got to see where the students who are doing their practice are living. They have rooms in an empty building where 4-6 of them sleep and live together in each room. I think Melinda said that there are 20 of them in the building. It doesn’t seem too bad, except that they only seem to have one working shower and Melinda said it doesn’t have any hot water! I don’t know how well I’d deal with that.

On the plus side, they are very close to the Liu San Jie Resort, a place that I think is quite beautiful. If I didn’t live in Yizhou, I’d love to spend a night there. The rooms look really comfortable and the grounds are gorgeous. It’s really quiet and peaceful. Over here, in the bustling bit of the city, we don’t get that kind of peace. Well, the best I get is climbing up the little mountain/hill at White Dragon Park near my apartment. However, I can still here the cars, loud music, and pig squeals from up there.

A few weeks ago, I was giving some students advice on improving vocabulary and pushing them past their basic English skills. I told them to read the world news and to give them an example, I opened up www.cnn.com and clicked on the first article that was related to China.
This is what came up:

An Article on Pollution and Cancer in China

After reading it, one of the students gasped in astonishment and then said “That’s the river that runs through my hometown! It’s very close to my home!”

I guess that was a good lesson on why people should keep up to date on the news.

So I finished writing my Brit Lit midterm. I’ll post it here after I give it this week. I don’t think any of my students know about my blog at all, but it would be a terrible thing if one of them happened to run across it and I had posted a copy of the exam!

This weekend was the English Department sports meeting.
Kate and I hung around in the morning on Saturday and watched some of the students compete. I went around and took some photos and talked to several students. It was fun to watch them win, but I must admit…it was a bit chilly and it started to drizzle and that took a lot of the enjoyment out of it. We stayed around for pretty much the whole morning bit, but we decided to stay at home and bake brownies instead of going back in the afternoon.

In the evening, we went out with some teachers to a restaurant out the front of the school gate…the menu had a lot of animal guts and some things with blood and parts of frogs. It certainly made our choice of dishes pretty simple! We had a good time talking with our colleagues though. It’s nice to get off campus, even if it’s not far at all.

Today Kate and I went to Luo cheng, a city about an hour from Yizhou. Actually, I was informed that it is technically a part of Yizhou. I don’t quite understand how these Chinese cities work!
We went to visit a school where some students are doing their teaching practice. I’ll post some more and some photos about that tomorrow.

In bad news, I bought a big mirror today- I have only had a tiny mirror the whole time so far, so I was really excited about this one! Well, before I even got to use it, it fell on the floor and shattered. I know it’s just a mirror, and in US dollars it cost me very little, but I was actually quite sad/disappointed/upset about it. Alas. I was kind of excited.
However, in order to put the mirror up, I had to take down a poster I bought at church. I thought about a sermon the pastor gave not long ago about how we shouldn’t be vain. I thought it was kind of amusing that I was taking down a Christian poster to put up a mirror. I guess the shattering of the mirror is a sign that I should work harder not to be vain.

I don’t usually believe in bad luck from silly things like breaking mirrors, but just a little bit ago, I tripped over my computer cord and nearly broke the bit that attaches to the computer. I think I got it back together okay, but to be quite honest, I’m not sure how long it’ll hold out now. I’ve already got to replace the battery on this thing asap (well, with a price of something crazy like $100, it might be a long time) but if the cord goes, I’m completely done for. Well, I’ll just use the library computer, which means I’ll be online for something like 30 minutes a day.
Maybe it would do me good to spend less time at a computer anyway…..
maybe.

Winter is coming to Yizhou! It has gotten cold and rainy in the past week. I’m actually wearing a cozy red American Apparel jacket from home. Makes me think of autumn and apples. I adore this weather. I’m not a fan of getting out of a warm shower into cold air I can’t escape, but I do love drinking hot tea and wearing layers. That’s more my style.
The real cold will be here next month though, probably, and that’s the rough part. There’s no escape from the bitter cold since we don’t really have heat here! Well, not quite true. In my bedroom I have a heater/air con unit, but it really can only heat my bedroom, so I guess that makes my bedroom an escape from the cold.

This weekend is the English Department’s sports meeting, so that should be interesting. I missed it last year- I think it was the same weekend as Kyle’s birthday, so I was gone.

My freshmen students are really excited, the sophomores less so, and the students in the 3+2 program were totally uninterested (they’re hoping for rain). However, they seemed at least a bit thrilled once I taught them the “Let’s go, let’s go- L-E-T-S-G-O!” cheer. They’re required to go and cheer on their classmates, so I guess that’ll come in handy.

As for me, it’s weird to have a weekend when I don’t have to go somewhere or Kyle isn’t visiting. We saw each other every weekend starting at the October holiday which was the end of September. That’s unusual, but it was pretty nice, I must say.
I’ve got to give two midterm exams next week (more about that later), so I have to prepare everything for that this weekend, I’ve decided to clean out my drawers (most of them) and my wardrobe (what a pain!), Kate and I are going to visit Lizzy where she is doing her teaching practice on Sunday, and tomorrow we have to attend this sports meeting and have dinner with a couple of colleagues.

As for the exam thing…ha. Well, I wasn’t thinking. I was intending to give my sophomore spoken English students their exam next week and give my Brit Lit exam the week after. I guess I got carried away and I told my Lit students all about the exam they’ll have next week. Now I can’t back out, so I’ve just got to tough it up and write the exam this weekend. I really have got to stop and organize things in my head sometimes! I have a schedule all set up on my computer, but I just forget to look at it.

Anyway, I’ve got to go work on some more cleaning… I’m supposed to go climb the “hill”/”mountain” (karst formation?) with Weilinling in an hour.