Warriors at School and Qing Ming Festival

It's already the 8th month, meaning 3 months left and I'll be back in the states (for a minimum of July and August).  Still deciding what to do next year, as is typical for my decision-making process.  Can I blame it on being Gemini--the twins battling back and forth until a compromise ultimately arises?

Today I’ll give them a survey of their opinions of the class and of me.  Hopefully they have both positive comments and honest feedback.  However, one student told me that they have surveys like this every term and they always just fill in perfect, perfect, perfect…because they write their names on them and if they don’t write a name their teacher won’t look at it.  Effective surveys, huh?  If it turns out that I’m helping them and they think I’m a good teacher, it will help my decision.  Basically, if I’m bad at my job, then why keep doing it, right?

Recently, we've had an onslaught of holidays (not too shabby, I'd say), and in that time the Shaolin Temple (kung fu monks) visited our school to practice their international travel show.  About 1 hour west of me is the Shaolin Temple, the home of internationally-known Shaolin Kung Fu.  They regularly travel around the world displaying their skills.  To prepare for a tour of the US, they performed at our school!

Joining the Shaolin monks are traditional Chinese musicians from Zhengzhou University who demonstrate the classical Chinese instruments.

The monks demonstrate kung fu, tai chi, ancient Chinese weapons, and, of course, breaking stuff with their bodies.  After breaking metal sticks with their head, wooden boards with their hands, throwing a single pin through a sheet of class, they moved on to breaking wooden sticks across arms, legs and backs.  cool, huh!

For Qing Ming festival, some people I met while traveling in Spring Festival came to Zhengzhou to see the surrounding sites.  Here is a classic experience for a foreigner in China, the frequent question "may I take a picture with you?"  The Chinese in the photo can go home and say "I saw the shaolin monks AND a foreigner! Look!"

Daniel, Marie, and Rebecca study at the People's University in Beijing and came for the weekend.  Here we're in the Pagoda Forest, effectively a cemetery for great Buddhist monks.  The taller the pagoda, the greater the monk.

After Shaolin, we went to Luoyang to see the UNESCO listed Longmen Grottoes.  Luoyang's famous food is it's "water banquet" the first course displayed here.  The dish is joined by a small turtle made of seashells, nicknamed "Mary Poppins".  The three bought it to signify the fourth member of their group who usually travels with them.

What else do foreigners do when together in China..spot the Chinglish.

Here we are at the Longmen Grottoes, a collection of Buddhist carvings in the hills of Longmen.  In total there are thousands of Buddhas.  Daniel is from Stockholm, Marie is from Paris, and Rebecca coincidentally, is from Minneapolis and goes to the U of M!

Chinglish alert!  I'm just gonna follow the arrow...

Chinglish alert! 

The trip was also characterized by the constant search for coffee.  Rebecca was basically non-functioning until we found this wonderful sign.  Unfortunately it was instant coffee (which still has a little bit of caffeine).  Rebecca was quoted as saying, "Ugh, this tastes like dog pee.  And what is this stuff at the bottom, sand?  ...you gonna finish yours?"

Returning to Zhengzhou, here in Zhengzhou's new Eastern district, we walked through the park observing the spring flowers and Daniel and Rebecca gathered two of each kind for Mary Poppins.

The four of us on the bridge over Ruyi lake with the performing arts center in the background.  By the way, this is where I live.  How awesome is that!?

In China, the written word is very important and writing it is seen as art.  Thus, one can find people with these sponges simply writing in water on the sidewalk.  Here, Daniel tries it out as the Chinese stare in amazement that a foreigner can write Chinese!

The collection of Spring flowers for Mary Poppins's bed.  Thus concluding my Qing Ming holiday.