Lea travels...

Schlechte Nachrichten...

2009-11-17T02:43:00.000-08:00

Hi you, unfortunately I can't access blogger.com very often, so I launched a webside!!!

Hi ihr alle, leider kann ich nur noch sehr selten auf diesen Blog zugreifen, deswegen habe ich jetzt eine WEBSIDE!!!!

www.leavalentinefrieda.wg.vu

Schaut euch einfach das an, da sind neue Fotos!

Love <3

September, the 23rd

2009-09-23T06:27:00.000-07:00

Hi Leute,

also heute geht es mal um eines meiner Lieblingsthemen: ESSEN!

Hier koennt ihr die beruehmten Gansuer Nudeln sehen... sind weisser und etwas groesser als die italienischen, die wir gewohnt sind :) Die Leute hier tragen sie einfach unterm Arm durch die Gegend.

Im Supermarkt gibt es ausserdem eine reichhaltige und interessante Gemuese- und Obsttheke. Im Bild koennt ihr (wenn ihr genau hinseht) folgendes entdecken:
Lotusstangen, viele Arten von Pilzen, gekochte Nudeln in Plastiktueten (???), Tangplatten (so wuerde ich das jedenfalls beschreiben:), Kuerbisbaellchen (sehr lecker!), Tintenfisch (oder sowas) und Suppengemuese (das kennt ihr von daheim, oder?:)

Ach ja, Gansu ist zwar nicht so die Reisprovinz (ihr wisst schon, die nudeln:), aber trotzdem gibt es viel guten Reis! Man hat eine schoene Auswahl, der kleinste Sack wiegt 5 kg...ist aber auch gut so:)

September 20th, bike trip!!!

2009-09-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went on a little bike trip outside of Zhangye city.
Pretty fast there were many fields and less houses which was very nice.
So we made a break, ate our sandwiches and enjoyed the quietness:)
We sat next to a road, so everytime a car or motorbike passed the stared at us like we were aliens. Next to all these corn fields surly a possibility...=)
However, we get used to it and just keep smiling...

In the pictures, you can see my bike, the long straight road (just like in the US), a sheep (we weren't quite sure if it was dead or alive) and a man you watches over his sheep... this time we had no doubt: they were alive!

September, the 17th

2009-09-17T05:49:00.000-07:00

Um Recycling kuemmern wir uns zum Beispiel garnicht... es gibt einen Muelltunnel in unserem Haus und in die Roehre wirft man einfach ALLES rein. Sowas wollte ich schon immer!!! (Also den Tunnel, nicht das "Nicht-Muelltrennen"!)
Aber ist doch schoen, dass die zumindest die Theorie auf dem richtigen Weg ist... und das alles, because we "love our homeland" ;)

Das ist sozusagen das Wahrzeichen unserer kleinen Stadt...bei Nacht ist es wunderschoen beleuchtet...

Gemuese kriegt man hier im Supermarkt oder am Strassenrand. Die Bauern aus der Umgebung verkaufen hier Suesskartoffeln, Mais, Lauch, ... alles moegliche, auch Melonen! Allerdings weiss ich nicht, ob sie die wirklich selber angebaut haben...:)

September, the early 17th :)

2009-09-16T08:05:00.001-07:00

I thought maybe I should post a picture with me on it once in a while. Just to let you know that I still look the same =)
This is Lena and me in front of our school.

September 16th... new guitar!!!

2009-09-16T07:10:00.000-07:00

Today I got the package from my mum! We were on our way to the street to catch a taxi when the gate keeper gave it to me:) Now I've got lots of German herb tea and new guitar strings.
Today we observed an oral English class from another Amity teacher (Rae) and afterwards... i finally bought my guitar! So the timing was perfect... I just have to figure out if it is possible to change the strings without destroying the guitar...:)

My guitar is "lovely" and "lucky". Chinese-English expressions are -let's say- interesting...:) You should see some of the t-shirts here or our water cups. "How re you".

Just enjoy these "kitschy" details ;)

As you might have figured, this is the back of the guitar!

September , the 12th

2009-09-12T02:10:00.000-07:00

On Thursday was national Teacher's Day... we went to a restaurant with all the English teachers to have a very, very big and delicious lunch! The afternoon was free for teachers and students which was nice... and we needed it to recover from overeating :)
Here are some of the dishes:

"corn bread". sprinkled with colored sugar.

seasonal vegetables. sweet potatoes. carrots. corn. something like peas.

fish. dead. didn't smile for the picture though.

wow, just now happened something crazy. It knocked at the door, so I opened and there were standing two girls. I thought, well maybe some of Lena's co teachers... But it turned out, they were two of my students. of course I didn't remember them.
They came to ask me if i can give them extra lessons on the weekend. what?! nein, vielleicht?!?! Even after finding several reasonable explanations (need time for staying in touch with the family, would be unfair considering the other 1200 students...) why I wasn't able to spend time with them they still stood there... and then i remembered that i wanted to buy sport shoes:) So i will practise with them tomorrow on our way to the sports store...

September, the 9 1/2 th

2009-09-09T06:44:00.000-07:00

This is my desk in the English teacher office. There are ten English teachers for grade 2. I let my students call me "Ms Lea" and I put a little sign on the side of my desk:) The chair I am sitting on is very low in comparison to the desk, so I put some pillows on it...

"Napolen Bonaparte". Definitely a boy who wrote that one down. I want my students to choose an English name for my class and to put their names on a list... and even though there are some names i have never heard of (and i will probably never hear in any English speaking country), most of the ones they choose are alright :)
one girl told me that she did not want an English name because she did not like English. And so I asked her for her Chinese name which I could not pronounce correctly (you could tell because the students started to laugh when i tried...:) I think this was reason enough...As a name she chose "onion" (Zwiebel)...well, as long as she doesn't start to smell like one:P

September, the 9th

2009-09-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

This is one of the classes I taught today. You can see their very pretty school uniform :) and how large the size of a classical Chinese class is: 50 students and more!

Usually they are very quiet and listen to what you say. This class had a "loud day" though:) They asked me about my home town and if i could sing an English song for them... i promised to do this next class :P

September the 7th

2009-09-06T22:23:00.001-07:00

Back in Nanjing we visited the Amity Printing Press. They produce one million bibles a month. Unfortunately, you can only get them at a registered church and not in a public bookstore. They print bibles not only in Chinese but in 75 different languages. To get more information, visit www.amityprinting.com!

September the 4th

2009-09-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

This is a very handy and typical Chinese tea bottle! It got a net on top. This way you can use dried green tea and can drink without getting this stuff between your teeth...and you can refill it with hot water all day long without changing the tea leaves... i wonder why i haven't seen this invention in germany yet... i am sure you would love it too!

This is a picture I've taken in Nanjing... i felt like a typical tourist when i took it. But i still like it very much :)

Lets get started!

2009-09-02T08:09:00.001-07:00

Guten Morgen! Na, Lust auf eine kleine Aufwachrunde? Bevor der Unterricht beginnt, stemmen manche Schueler schon Gewichte, spielen Basketball oder muessen in ihren schicken Schuluniformen (die ich in die Kategorie "Trainingsanzug" stecken wuerde:) ein paar Runden im Kreis rennen...

Heute hatte ich drei Klassen. Am Ende der Unterrichtsstunde sollten die Schueler noch Fragen aufschreiben, die sie an mich oder den Englischunterricht haben. Diese hier waren ganz witzig, sind aber durchaus representativ!
(Wenn ihr auf das Bild klickt koennt ihr lesen, was auf den Zetteln steht:)

Some "impressions" ...:)

2009-09-01T04:19:00.000-07:00

Hier in dieser sehr friedvollen und relativ trockenen Stadt deponieren Geschaefte, Schulen und so weiter einfache eine grosse Anzahl von Blumentoepfen vor den Eingaengen... nicht sehr geschmackvoll, aber immerhin gruen...

Und mit chinesischen Zeichen drauf schauen sogar Muelltonnen schick aus, findet ihr nicht auch? :)

2009-09-01T03:09:00.000-07:00

Das ist die Schule in der ich unterrichte, Zhangye Senior Middle School. Es gibt drei Klassenstufen und jede hat ihr eigenes Gebaeude. Das zweite von vorne ist Senior2, beinhaltet also die 20 Klassen, die ich unterrichte. Im 4th floor (Erdgeschoss=1st floor)rechts hinten ist das Englischlehrerzimmer, man kann die Fenster leider nur erahnen. Heute hatte ich meine 3. Unterrichtsstunde und diesmal hat es glaub ich ganz gut geklappt (von meinem urspruenglichen Plan ist nicht mehr viel uebrig, der war naemlich nicht sooo passend, wie sich herausgestellt hat...:)
Die meiste Zeit halte ich mich im Lehrerzimmer auf, male, schnippel und unterhalte mich mit den Lehrern... der Tisch und der Stuhl sind allerdings nicht so ideal (stuhl=sehr niedrig, tisch=das hoechste modell im Raum:)Deswegen habe ich mich zusaetzlich auf die DIN A4 Papierpackung draufgesetzt. Demnaechst werde ich mir wohl ein paar Kissen zulegen:)
Das Level der Klassen ist sehr unterschiedlich, auch innerhalb der Klasse. Bei 60 Schuelern kein Wunder. Aber wenn man die ersten Unterrichtsstunden ueberstanden hat und man sich langsam aneinander gewoehnt wirds bestimmt voll schoen, weil "english conversation" fuer die Schueler einfach mal etwas abwechslung vom chinesischen nachplapper-unterricht bietet.
Ich werde jetzt versuchen, etwas regelmaessiger bilder etc hochzuladen und euch oefter mal informieren, was hier so abgeht :P zai jian, Lea

chinese food and in a chinese garden

2009-08-18T06:49:00.000-07:00

bye bye frog!

2009-08-12T04:56:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we went out for dinner to this restaurant and ordered some dishes, some just by pointing at the characters and looking at the pictures. At least one of us could read and speak Chinese. But also translating the name of the dish and seeing the pictures did not really help us to know what was actually in there. After we had ordered the waiter took one of these frogs out of the aquarium and we joked around about who just ordered frog. well...

As the non vegetarians tried the "meat" the noticed this froggy skin and pieces!
aaah!! We had that frog on our table!!!! chopped and cooked though, but it was that frog!!!
It was just so funny and unbelievable because, of course, we did not want this little (no, actually big) frog to be killed and eaten by us.

Now, you may wonder if I ate it or not...

Duh, how could i miss this opportunity of a life time?!! :)
And it actually tasted really good! Of course, it was quite gross at first, but as soon as i got it in my mouth, I knew why french people sold (or sell) it as a delicacy.
The meat of the frog was very tender and it tasted a little like chicken and fish combined (well, I could be wrong because i do not eat chicken:)
But don't be afraid, I won't add it to my daily menu! I will still prefer to be a “Vegetarian", even though I made this one exception...lol :P

I hope no one of you got a heart attack.

Otherwise you should consult your doctor and avoid reading my blog! :)

bye bye,

Lea

The first three days...

2009-08-08T06:25:00.000-07:00

That's in Shaghai, right at the train station.
From there we went first to Nanjing and then to Yangzhou where we will stay during the next two weeks.

Today we went to a supermarket with our tutors (the girls who help us studying Chinese). We finished with a meal:

Here you see what I ate, from right to left:
Some dumpling (kinda) filled with sweet bean paste and egg yolk, Aubergines in vinegar-soy, tofu noodles, some sort of beans and soy milk.
Was delicious!

Two of our tutors enjoying there pumpkin and rice soup...