Teaching at the Deaf School

This past week, N and I had an opportunity to help teach at a school for Deaf students. We were both really nervous and unsure at first since our sign language skills are still very elementary, but we really had a lot of fun with the kids. It was their last day of (reading/writing) English class, so after their exam, we taught them a vocabulary game. Here are some pictures of how it all went:


This is the whole class. They range in age from 9 years to 18 years -- all in one class.


This is my favorite picture :) He was so happy when he got the word right.


It is so easy to fall in love with these kids. They are such happy kids, and they love to meet foreigners, especially those that know their language!


This is to anyone that has ever been a school teacher -- don't you wish that your students would behave this well?! It just amazed me how good their behavior was. It may not be that way every day, but it sure was that day.


This is us teaching the game.


This just amazed me. They have a cafeteria, but some time ago, some students broke some of the chairs (or something, I'm not sure) so from then on, they had to eat outside, rain, sun, snow, or heat. Made me feel so blessed for the schools that I had the opportunity to go to.


This is the lunch line. Everyone got the same thing -- rice and veggies...and no drink. Drinks are not necessary at meals in this country. You would think they would be so dehydrated...


These students are all amazing artists. It all just amazed me. This one student found some of her artwork and gave it to us to have. I think I will frame it and put it up somewhere in our apartment :)

FOOD!

Thought you might like a "taste" of our everyday eating!


Well, this picture is not a taste of our everyday eating, but I find it funny. You see, we don't go to nice restaurants too often, but this time we did, and N ordered the "salmon salad"...and only that. This is what he got...he went for noodles afterwards :)


This is siwawa. You get about ten tiny thin "torilla" wraps and pick whatever vegetables from these many plates to fill the wraps. Then, if you want, you dip it in pepper sauce, which I usually pass.


Pig feet and knuckles. There is no meat here, just skin, but it is very popular with the locals. They even were so nice as to order it for us, in which we had to eat it. Not bad, but chewing on skin is just not for me.


Pai Cai -- spicy sour vegetables. N likes, I don't. I don't really recommend anyone eat it.


Noodle dishes -- it was actually our Easter meal! It was either that or pizza...and if you know us, we will go for the noodles.


This is a tasty dish. It is (sometimes fried)rice topped with vegetables and/or meat, then wrapped in a lotus leaf. You don't eat the leaf.

MORE FOOD!

This is even more unusual food we have here :)


Fish is a very popular dish here. As you can see, it is the whole fish with bones and everything. I actually got a large fish bone stuck in my throat a few weeks ago and had to gag it out...since then, I have vowed never to eat fish again.


This is one of our favorite meals. You have a boiling pot of soup then you pick out whatever meats, veggies, tofu you want and add them in. You get super full and it is very cheap. For the two of us, we usually spend less than $5.


For those that like man's best friend...move on to the next picture...


These are some desserts we got in Hong Kong. The bowl is red and green bean porridge (sweet -- red bean is a used in a lot of sweet dishes here) and something like black glutinous rice with mangoes wrapped in something I can't remember...


This is one of our favorite dishes -- claypot rice! The cook the rice in a small claypot, then add toppings of meat and/or vegetables. The rice stays super hot and creates a crispy layer on the bottom which is N's favorite part. Give me the dark vinegar and I'm all set!


Ok, a very popular food item in a little town south of us. It is spicy pepper chicken pieces soaked in pepper oil. I tried it...probably won't try it again.


This is after a meal of stir-fried dishes. We probably had about 10 people at our table. You just eat off whatever plates you want. It's nice to share!

Repeat 5 times: We are flexible, we are flexible, we are...

Our motto at camp was always "Stay Flexible!", but we never knew the true meaning of that until we moved to our new city and started interacting with the Deaf. If you know me and N, we are both very "by the book" and like to have a plan for everything. Well, living here is really stretching us to become more "suibian" -- "whatever". Monday during my class, I asked my teacher to come for dinner the next night and for her to invite 1-2 Deaf friends so we could practice our language. She agreed so I started planning for dinner the next night. Well, N had class with his teacher Tuesday morning who just happened to invite himself and 2 friends (high schoolers who are both hearing: one can speak a little English but can't sign, the other is the daughter of a N's teacher's best friend who can sign but can't speak English). Confusing, huh?! Anyways, so the number jumps quickly to 7 minimum. N's teacher and friends arrive about 5:30 and my teacher says she will arrive with her friends between 6-7. Well, at 7, she texts and says she is bringing 3 friends. (Ok, by this time I'm telling myself to stay flexible!). They finally arrive at 7:15. I'm still trying to figure out how to make meals for guests and have no idea when they will actually arrive. So, we have an American meal of spaghetti, garlic bread, and fruit salad, as well as a plum cake. Everyone really seemed to like it. Then, we taught them the game of "UNO", in which N and his teacher cheated the whole time...but never won ;) Everyone ended up leaving at 10:00, so we were pretty exhausted after trying to use sign language, English, and the little Chinese we have to communicate to everyone there. But, again, being flexible is a fantastic trait to have here, one we don't completely have yet, but slowly we are losing our need of a strict schedule. However, we still have to remind ourselves almost daily "TINA -- This Is Not America!"

Going Sightseeing

We had the opportunity this past Friday to do some sightseeing in a nearby town about an hour away. Just wanted to post some pictures!



This is the famous Chinese game that is played daily in many places. I spent 30 minutes trying to learn how to play being taught by 4 Deaf individuals. A little hard, I would say!



This is a famous food in this city where we were sightseeing. I agreed to taste it but probably won't ever eat it again, if I have a choice. It is crunchy chicken drenched in "lajiao" (hot peppers) and oil. And it tastes exactly how it sounds.



Part of lunch -- Baby Taros and Pork (I really liked it)



#2 part of lunch -- Another specialty: some kind of mushrooms (again, I liked)



#3, #4, and #5 part of lunch -- pig's feet (which all you eat is skin, better than I thought but will probably never eat it again), green tofu (pretty bland I thought -- I like my tofu stirfried), and spicy sour vegetables (I liked except they were too spicy for my liking)



Isn't this beautiful?! It looks so much better in real life though. So incredibly peaceful, I didn't want to leave and come back to the noisy city.



A picture of the streets, filled with stores full of amazing handmade clothes, jewelry, anything you can think of.



Just a neat picture.

MAFAN!!! (translation: TROUBLE!!!)

"Mafan" seems to be every foreigners favorite word. It means "trouble" as if you were saying "Oh, that is just so mafan". It's hard to go through a day without "mafan". Today, we have big mafan in our apartment. You see, we were lucky enough in our first city to have an apartment with two bathrooms, but not so lucky in this city, where we only have one bathroom. When we moved in, the bathroom had one toilet and a shower head, but of course, no shower walls. Just a shower head (which is very common here). We decided we didn't like the whole bathroom being wet after taking a shower, so we bought a bathtub and shower curtain. Well, while the man was installing our (plastic, yes, plastic, we are not in America) bathtub, we think he may have leaned too hard against our toilet and cracked the cement which attaches the toilet to the floor. This was about 2 days ago. At first, water only seeped out of the crack when we flushed. However, now, water is seeping out even before we flush! Sorry if this is TMI (too much info). So, our only toilet is no longer usable :*( However, two good things... 1) We are leaving for visa renewal purposes tomorrow and will be gone a week, so we won't have to worry about being toilet-less for a week, and 2) we just happen to have a public toilet station just down our alley, which today was the first time for me to use (not the cleanest if you can imagine...). Bad thing is once we get back, we're not really sure what to do about this, and we can only climb down 5 flights of stairs, walk to the toilet station, and walk up 5 flights of stairs for so long. One thing for sure, one day, when we finally have a place of our own back in America, we are having two bathrooms!

Be Grateful for American Plugs!

It may sound like a strange title, for I never thought I would be so jealous of American plugs, but it is true...I am green with envy. What is the big deal about American plugs, you ask? Well, you have one basic kind of plug and outlet. "C", on the other hand, thinks it is beneficial to have at least 3 different kinds of plugs and outlets. Let's name them "Frustration A, Frustration B, Frustration C (A, B, C for short)". For example, each room has one set of outlets (which may include room for 1-4 plugs). I think our apartment building was built when appliances were rare and people didn't need many plugs (it looks like it was built 100 years ago...). Our kitchen has 2 As, and 2 Bs, but only in one little corner, so all of our appliances can only be in that one corner, and tough luck if you have 3 appliances that needs to be plugged that needs an A outlet! In our living room, the only outlet is behind the TV. I mean, who wants to put a lamp in another corner, or maybe a electric fan since most people don't have AC's? Oh, and our one vanity area...has the infamous C plug, but goodness...the water heater is plugged in that one. We have tried extension cords but for some reason, they do not make extension cords for C plugs, so the water heater has to fit directly into the outlet. So, instead, if I need to plug something in for my hair, I do it in a different room. Anyways, next time you plug something in, be grateful. I guess I should be grateful to have any kind of plug -- I'll work on that :)