pronunciation.. yes, that's how you say it..

Its TUESDAY- you all must know by now that that means I am doing everything in my power to procrastinate working on my lecture tomorrow that covers American history from World War 2 to current events!

Its hot again. Things are blooming. My sinuses were really congested but they are much better now. I really like my freshmen and we're starting to sing a little John Denver to get the students more familiar with rhythm. It makes me leave class in a good mood and give me energy to enjoy the walk home instead of taking the bus.

Things that used to seem so surprising here are becoming less-so. I find it odd if I don't see a truck/modified bicycle with 'truck' bed piled with double its volume of bamboo, paper, garbage, computer parts, ect. Or a baby peeing on the sidewalk. Although the water buffalo in the stream under the bridge on the way home was a little unexpected. What I mean to say is that I need to write down all my observations of odd happenings in China, before I forget that the rest of the world isn't like that. I'd really like to say I'm getting in a groove- you know, things gradually becoming less confusing- but it really depends on the day. Last night I was pumped up after John Denver so I was excited to try out my new Mandarin at the little restaurant by the gate to get some bamboo fried rice to-go. But other days I just want to boil my own jiao zi- because doing that is something I almost understand. Hole away in my wonderful safe apartment and curl up with Rosetta Stone (my Chinese Language program) until everyone outside says something that makes more sense than blardy blardy blardy. Crap, blardy is totally British English. Gahhhhh.

So in this pronunciation class we are working on vowel sounds. Perhaps you are not aware, but compared to the Brits, the American accent has extremely flat vowels. So when my students try to hear the difference between land and lend my students have major trouble. Also- does anyone know if we say merry and marry differently? Because I don't think I do. I feel a lot of pressure on myself when I teach this class... I mean I am teaching the students to talk like me. I am teaching them my specific dialect of English. That's what they will sound like. With all my Wisconsin bagels and all.

This weekend I went with a bunch of Morten's students to some little mountain village. They were very nice, things were very pretty- but as I said before, I was very congested. We played games around the campfire, ate bbq, hiked around, and I played with Sarah and Elisabeth's puppy. He is cute. Good times all around.

Last Sunday I finally went to Qian Wang's tomb- which is literally right behind where I live. One of my students offered to come too- it was really nice having someone along to help translate. I also found out I'm still pretty good at shooting bow too :) I won two bottles of water by getting two bullseyes with a recurve bow :) They randomly had these games set up- as well as old timey Chinese clothing you could get your picture taken in- which certainly will happen eventually.

So, the students are great, I'm just staying extremely busy. We're getting ready for Halloween, so Morten and I are planning on going to Hangzhou to pick up some goods. The English association on campus is sponsoring a Halloween party- and we are probably going to have one too. Its just a matter of finding the perfect costume....