Awake, finally

We're home and well recuperated from our high school Fall Camp. I went home at 10am on Friday, and was in bed by 11am. I set my alarm to get up at 2:30pm, because I had a music practice at school to return for. However, it did not wake me up, and I kept sleeping....until 4am on Saturday! I can't believe it, I completely skipped Friday.

Our time began on Thursday with the 3 service projects we had scheduled. All went as planned, and the feedback from the students was quite good.

The theme of our camp centered around love and service, based roughly around Matthew 22:39, in which Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. That's why the day started with the service projects - to help break our isolation from our foreign community, and serve the needs of the local people around us. It's kind of like saying, "won't you be my neighbor?"

Painting an Olympic mural at a school for migrant children
A classroom of Chinese students
Preparing to paint walls at the school
Playing games at a school in Dujiangyan
A newly planted garden

Once it was over, we met back at the hotel for some debrief time. Dinner was brought in from the market - we had 少烤 (pronounced shao kao, grilled meats and veggies on skewers). It did not go quite as planned, because the vendors were late in arriving and brought fewer grills than we planned. However, the kids were in good spirits and used the free time to mingle.


Another fun afternoon highlight was a competitive game of "chicken ball." This game is more or less ultimate frisbee, but played with a whole, raw chicken. Gross, but the kids really got into it. There were boys (and some girls) running around, trying desperately to pick up that chicken.

Look close - you can see the chicken in midair!

We had 3 games scheduled, but after the first game, the chicken was mangled and coming apart. Unfortunately, this exposed bones that were beginning to cause injuries. Play was suspended, and Alan the ref turned into Alan the medic.

I think a good 8-10 got patched up due to chicken-ball related cuts. I disinfected them all, so there should be no infection. However, if this is school was in America....I would have smelled a lawsuit. We bought a new, still-frozen chicken and had no further problems. So let this be a lesson - if you are going to play a sport with a dead animal, stick it in the freezer first.

In the evening, we met for some singing and reflection time. We talked a little about the concepts of love and service. One great quite from the night came from one of our juniors, who responded to the question of "How do you want to be loved?" by saying, "I want love for me to be altruistic. In biology, altruism is defined as an action that another organism takes which will increase another organism's reproductive success while sacrificing its own reproductive success. Well, I want to be loved that way. Except the reproductive part." As his AP Biology teacher, of course I was proud.

Singing in the auditorium

Rachel washing the feet of a student

Our last official activity for the night was to build what one student called "the longest ice cream sundae ever built in Chengdu." It was pretty big, and 70 students fit around it at once.


All in all, it was a good time. The students served well, and socialized all night long with one another. Many spent time with people outside their normal social circles, which was even more encouraging to see. Many stayed up the whole night, including the teachers, which is the source of our all-day sleep fest.

But now, that is over, and it is time to go to Chongqing for our staff retreat. We leave Sunday morning and return Wednesday. We will be at the InterContinental (5 star!!) but I do not think we have free internet :( So, I will post when we return.

-alan

Fall camp begins

Tomorrow morning, we will be helping to lead the high school fall camp. This year's plan is quite exciting - we will spend the day doing community service projects, and spend the night at school.

We have three sites: an orphanage, where students will lavish attention on the babies and play games with the young children; a school that was rebuilt following the earthquake, where students will lead the elementary school kids in team-building games and English lessons; and a local school for migrant children, where the students will repaint the school's exterior and provide general sprucing up of the grounds.

Our level of community involvement (as a school, and as individuals) has been a little lacking, so this is a wonderful opportunity to get that turned around. Many of the students have expressed that they are excited about the opportunity to serve, which is music to a teacher's ears.

Back at the school, we will do the usual combination of silly games, serious talks, and eating junk food. The kids will be allowed to stay up as long as they want, and we hope this will provide them with good bonding times.

By Friday morning, I am sure we will all be exhausted. That is why we are sending them home early!

After that.....VACATION!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!

-alan

sleepless night

I've officially got a problem.

Yesterday, I watched the NU-Syracuse game in pieces, fitting in a quarter here and there between other Sunday commitments. I had spent a good couple hours on Saturday just trying to figure out how to watch the game - keeping friends in the US up late, and eventually asking my parents to order it on ESPN pay-per-view. I've been following the NU blogosphere closely, which has only fueled my obsession. In the end, the game was a heart-breaking loss. It has been awhile, so apparently I forgot how disappointing it feels. Unfortunately, we did not end up finishing the game until nearly 10pm, which is bed time on Sunday. So I went to bad still steaming from the loss, and both Rachel and I tossed and turned for some time before falling asleep.

I love NU football, but is it worth losing sleep over? ....don't think so!

Go cats!

-alan

Kids say the darndest things...

Baby fever has swept over CDIS. At the time of this writing 4 teachers are pregnant (1 foreign, 3 nationals). As a couple WITHOUT kids, the questions have been flying as to when we are going to jump on the bandwagon. For those of you out there who also want to ask this question, the answer is not yet :-)

Yesterday I experienced one of the most awkward student conversations ever on the topic. My typing will not be able to capture the moment, but I will try :-)

So I was chatting with a few students during high school lunch about various topics from homework to service projects. One student suddenly asked, "Are you pregnant Mrs. Allmen?" I'm hoping he didn't ask because my belly was protruding, but I think it was just do to the recent outbreak of pregnancies. I responded, "No, I'm not." He proceeds to ask and explain a serious of questions as his fellow students listened in shocked at his inquiry. "Well, why aren't you pregnant? Don't you want to be pregnant? Maybe you and Mr. Allmen should.....uh....you know...be more intimate (doing some gestures with his hands)...Then you know, you can get pregnant."

Wow. What did I say? What could I say? One of the other students chimed in that he is lucky Mr. Allmen wasn't there or he might have beat him up. I hope the look on all our faces was enough to deter this kid from never asking such things again.

-rachel

New restaurant review

In August of this year, a new Korean restaurant opened outside our housing complex. It is owned by a family whose children attend our school. What follows is the story of my recent visit.

The restaurant is spacious and open, at least when compared to the other non-hotpot restaurants along the street. The decor is simple - brown wood accents with white walls, and greenish brown wood tables. Each table seats 4 and has a gas-powered grill built into the center. The atmosphere at 7pm was lively, as nearly every table was full and Korean music played from one corner.

The menu is well-designed, with its thick pages filled with pictures and tri-lingual names for the dishes. The food is traditional Korean fare, with a sufficient variety of grilled meats, soups, rice, and noodle dishes taking center stage. The prices are competitive - more than the Chinese food that its neighbors serve, but still a bargain when compared to prices of Korean food downtown.

We ordered 3 dishes: grilled pork and vegetables, fried calamari, and kimchi fried rice. The meat dish was served with a mix of bell peppers and carrots, not the onions which it was pictured with. This was no major problem, though, for the dish tasted savory and satisfying. It was not too salty or spicy, which is always a relief. The meat was a thick-sliced pork bacon, which had more meat than fat and so was acceptable. It was served first, only a few minutes after being ordered. The calamari came out second. The basket of rings had a panko breading, which gave it a nice crunch. When dipped in a small amount of ketchup, it satisfied the seafood and fried food cravings within us. The fried rice came out last. It was cooked with a variety of vegetables and had a fried egg on top.

With empty bellies, these 3 dishes provided enough food to feed the two of us, leaving enough rice leftover for 1 person to eat for lunch. Total cost: 55 kuai.

Recommendation - Overall, I feel the selection, atmosphere, and taste are better than the other Korean option(s) in Xipu, and the cost is competitive. I would still want to try their DIY grilled meats, but I was left happy and wanting more. I look forward to returning again.

-alan

What games!

I love football season! We watched NU-EMU, a little but of UMich-ND, and OSU-USC this afternoon. The Slingbox has been a little screwy the past week (Seems like there have been bandwidth restrictions, but when we use the VPN it improves. Weird.), but the feed was watchable.

It was great - all 3 games were down to the final seconds. The first one was horribly, horribly disappointing, considering how bad a team EMU is. Sure makes NU look mediocre, for us to only beat them by a last second field goal.

The Michigan win was good to see, because I would root against ND no matter who it was.

The OSU game was a classic letdown moment, and I must admit I did not see it coming, after watching the USC offense sputter all night long. The Big Ten really lacks that killer instinct. And I suppose this game made it official - the Big Ten is a shell of its former self, and it cannot keep up with the likes of the SEC, Big 12, and Pac 10.

But the politics aside, I appreciated being able to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon watching GOOD games, no matter the outcome.

Time for bed - and back to work in the morning.

-alan

easing into the weekend

Unlike last week, I did not stay at work until 8pm. (though Rachel was there until 6:30) I actually wasn't feeling great, so I came home after volleyball.

Speaking of, I think I will be making cuts between now and the next practice. Not fun!

It was a long week - grades were due, and there was a lot of WASC work to be done. I am on the leadership team for our WASC self-study - the meaning of the acronym is not important, other than to know that this is for our school's continuing accreditation. What that means for me is some extra meetings and work. I am still undecided if this work will be beneficial for the school, or if it is busy work. I'll be doing me best to insure the former comes true.

In other news, I have been quite excited by the start of the football season. Fantasy football, Pick'em, and the Big 10 season have brought me back to the internet in a big, bad way. Of particular trouble for me is laketheposts.com - a fellow Blogger site that tracks Northwestern football with more depth than I thought possible. I am happy though, because it feeds my insatiable desire to know all things NU despite living thousands of miles away.

This week, they face Eastern Michigan in another yawn-fest. Of course I will watch, but I am more intrigued to see what comes of the ND-UofM and USC-OSU matchups. Thank you Slingbox!

Rachel is out now at English corner, but I stayed home because I was not feeling up to it. I should get some extra sleep tonight.

I rarely remember my dreams, but this week I had two vivid dreams involving flying to the US for Christmas - in both cases, I did stupid things that caused me to miss my connecting flight to Chicago from Shanghai. I hope these are not prophetic dreams.

-alan

Tennis elbow

I went out and played tennis today for the first time since the summer - and probably only the 4th or 5th time since moving to China. Some of the guys from school are playing every Monday, and I think my cardiovascular system was screaming for some attention. So I went, and played as badly as I wold expect. Give me a few more weeks, and maybe that will help...

Rachel returned safe and sound last night. She had a good trip!

Busy week already - today there were no classes, but lots and lots of meetings. Tomorrow is open house, and grades for the first progress reports are due Friday. Oh, and we have to plan our high school fall retreat. Aiya!

-alan

3 Quick hits

1) This morning, Rachel's alarm woke me at 6am. I got sweet revenge by shutting it off and defiantly sleeping until 11am.

2) The first taste of fall - yesterday and today the temps did not get above the 70s, and it was noticeably more comfortable. Yay!

3) The NU season kicks off in mere hours - less than 9 to be exact. It is quite, quite exciting. I am hoping for a good 30+ point trouncing of Towson. (though I may not be able to see it...scheduling issues with BTN in Michigan....)

-alan

Bachelor life

This morning, Rachel taught two classes and headed off to Tianjin. She is doing...something...related to student development. All I really know is that she was super psyched about doing a high ropes course.

So, I have most of the weekend to myself. Time to party, right?

Well, after volleyball practice ended, I went back to my classroom and started grading papers. Unfortunately, I am a little behind thanks to a number of extra committees and commitments I have this fall. I was getting a lot done, so I ended up staying there until almost 8.

I scootered home and heated up dinner - some leftovers from our maid. I have no idea what it is called. My best description is Chinese stew - ground meat, onions, red pepper, and lotus.

Now, I am kicking back on the couch, surfing the internet and watching Sportcenter.

It's not glamorous, but I guess this is the bachelor life.

-alan

Middle School Student Government Retreat 2009 - What a day!!

Wednesday is supposed to be an easy day.

Instead, today was a stressful, eventful, and exhilarating day. It started with a group of middle schoolers - the student government team - who took a day off of school and came over to our house for a mini-retreat. We planned events for the year, played some games, and ate together. It was a good time for them. The shy group that barely wanted to introduce themselves last week was bubbly and energetic. It's amazing what a little time away from classes can do! The highlight was "the challenge," when we divided the group in two, and tasked them to (1) plan an event, (2) go shopping for supplies, and (3) creating an advertising plan. The product was not polished, but it was a good start at getting them to work together. I am optimistic about working with them.


Following that, we had back-to-back-to-back meetings back at school, of which I had major roles in 2. So my brain had to switch one too many times during the afternoon.

Now, I'm pretty tired and not thrilled about the day to come. But a good night sleep will help.

Finally, you can take a look at some bonus pictures of Rachel and the cicada. It invaded our porch. Squint and you can see it above Rachel's knee in the first picture.



-alan