Wenshu temple is a large Zen Buddhist temple inside Chengdu. It's had a rough history, as have many rel*****s institutions in the country but it's open now, still functioning, populated (with monks) and beautiful. My american roommate Zach and I visited it this Friday after work. Zach is the only English speaker I see every day. I have co-workers who are anglo, but we all teach at different schools. As far as making Chinese friends goes, it's coming along. There are the muslim guys (previous post) and Zach and I went to English corner Friday night, which is an informal outdoor gathering of anyone who wants to practice their english, and any English-speaking laowai (foreigners) who want to indulge them. We got asked "where are you from" and "what do you do" by about 50 different people, but we also each met a few cool people and tonight we went out to a Tibetan tea house with 2 of them. so, that's good news. I'm traditionally bad at making friends on purpose.I've started incorporating guitar into all my classes now. I've taught my seniors about the wild west using "Take a message to Mary" (Bob Dylan) and about the American civil war using "The Night they Drove old Dixie Down" (The Band).
Most fun of all, I've taught my primary kids to sing "Thanks a Lot" by Raffi. So to recognize American Thanksgiving, here it is (listen closely for the yells of the neighborhood children):Finally, if you've been wondering why I haven't been appearing in any pictures recently, it's because I didn't have any of me. But here's a sequence from this weekend: one, two and three.
5 comments:
I really like the new song! Also the last pic on your post is very nice too. It's been good tlaking to you. Sweet dreams tonight!
vbhskep,
Jenni
this makes me want to go to asia SO BAD. i just looked at your entire photostream on flickr ;-)
also, WOW i wish we had those awesome black lungs et al on our cigarettes here!! all they do in the states is put a warning in wee letters that says something like "pregnant women shouldn't smoke due to possible fetal complications" or "smoking may increase your risk of lung cancer" but they're SO not prominent and demanding like the french ones :-)
C'est quoi galliciser? je galère? je devrais peut-être écrire mes blogs en français... mais je veux pratiquer mon anglais! mais de toute façon, je m'exprime mal dans toute les langues...
Galliciser c'est utiliser des tournures de phrase françaises dans une langue autre que le français, c tout. Mais t'inquiète, c cute tes gallicismes.
(This was a thread from a whole other conversation, people. So unless you're S, you can ignore this)
hey matt
kinda gone from your blog... been sick here, so, not much into doing anything, let alone writing.
so, just to let you know, i read it. loved the new picture, it kinda reminds me of david beckham. lol
take it easy and take care,
xoxo
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