Mark

Mark, selling books enthusiastically at the English Market. This is an activity which allows students to practice their English and buy newspapers in English, or other used English books. Mark always greets me with a big grin and a "Hello Miss Mikayla! How are you a doing?"

Stella

Today I saw Stella compete at the school ping-pong tournament. She didn't win, but she had a good time. Stella is characterized by her pig tails, an incessant giggle and a flair for the dramatic. At one moment she is like a little girl, and the next she is a serious student, trying to grasp a concept or word and make it her own.

I met Stella in class and had the privilege of naming her. She wanted to be named Steve, but after a peek at her purple shoes, I thought we should go with Stella. Stella always makes me laugh. Her Chinese name sounds similar to "Wrong Way" and she likes to joke about it. She also has frequent hilarious dreams which she describes in detail.

Today was a pretty hard China day, but was good to see Stella in the middle of it and have her be so excited to see me. I took this picture while she was trying to run away from the camera, and I think it captures some of who Stella is.... (When she saw it she said, "Monster!" and pretended like she didn't like it, but I'm pretty sure she did.)

Pollution

Here are a few interesting news items I read lately:

China: Yangtze is Irreversibly Polluted (April 13, 2007, AFP)

China's massive Yangtze river, a lifeline for tens of millions of people, is seriously polluted and the damage is almost irreversible, a state-run newspaper said Monday. More than 370 miles of the river are in critical condition and almost 30 percent of its major tributaries are seriously polluted, the China Daily said, citing a report by the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The pollution, along with damming and heavy use of boats, has caused a sharp decline in aquatic life along the Yangtze. The report said the annual harvest of aquatic products from the river has dropped from 427,000 tons in the 1950s to about 100,000 tons in the 1990s. It also showed that the huge reservoir created by the Three Gorges Dam, the world's biggest hydropower project, was seriously polluted by pesticides, fertilizers and sewage from passenger boats.

China About to Become Biggest CO-2 Emitter: IEA (April 18, 2007, Reuters)

China will overtake the United States as the world's biggest emitter of heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) either this year or next, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday. The estimate is much firmer than the IEA's previous forecast, last November, that on current trends China would overtake the United States before 2010. China is set to become the world's top carbon emitter just as serious talks start to extend the U.N.-sponsored Kyoto Protocol on global warming beyond 2012, potentially heaping pressure on Beijing to take more action on climate change. A copy of a so-far unpublished Chinese government global warming report, seen by Reuters, rejects binding caps on carbon emissions until the country's modernization, by the middle of this century, opting instead to brake emissions growth.

The students are aware of these issues. In class this week we discussed global problems. I asked the students to brainstorm amongst themselves and then write their answers on the board. Most of the words written revolved around these two topics.

There were no chocolate bunnies, or rabbits or fancy eggs. There are no sparkly grasses in baskets or special performance. It was a pretty raw Easter. Just accapella voices and simple conversations about what Easter is. Not much hype. A cultural lesson in class. I got a few text messages, "Happy Easter Day Miss Mikayla!". I called my parents. There was not much of the earthquaking, tomb raising, curtain ripping events this year. But, they were remembered. They were remembered and with them is the hope and promise of new life. New life for our weak lives now, and for after our fragile lives on earth. This year we have seeds and the mystery that comes with things that are invisible, but growing.

Kissing and Strawberries

Today I had an interesting experience....

After a morning of teaching I was running some errands in the neighborhood. I walked past students with mp3 earbuds in their ears, girls in baggy jeans with side ponytails, street vendors hoping just a few more people were hungry... I am always struck by the narrow alleys, the workers in blue uniforms, the old man, the child, even advertisements written on concrete walls... China seems new still, it seems fresh, and that is because it is always changing. Despite my months here, I am still such a stranger. The typical response to foreigners is always friendly, always curious. People often say "hello" or stare and tap their friends to take a look at the "lawai". Granted, I do the same thing if I see any foreigners here. The other day I saw a woman at Wal-mart who was clearly not Chinese. ... and Alli tapped me and we got excited and wondered who she was. So, today as I was buying fruit, I was not surprised when a high school aged girl started to talk to me. I wanted strawberries and she told me the Chinese word for strawberry and in English asked me if I was a teacher. I answered yes, then asked her if she was a student at my university. She shook her head no, and then kept staring at me. I told her this was my first time to China and apologized for my poor Chinese. She then stepped closer to me, and very deliberately kissed me on the cheek. This is not at all a Chinese thing to do. People do not traditionally touch when greeting each other at all, let alone a stranger. I was very surprised and confused, so I just said "thank you" and smiled and said goodbye. I asked a good Chinese friend about it, and she laughed and thought it was pretty strange, and suggested that the girl was just excited to see a foreigner. Needless to say, I felt welcomed.