Ms. T's Blog

2011-03-08T10:38:00.000-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

2010-12-07T11:18:00.002-05:00

Should all Americans be required to demonstrate their knowledge of American government and history as naturalized citizens must do in order to become citizens? Explain

(Note: when you post your response on this blog, I will automatically get an email.)

The Lost Generation

2010-03-12T09:49:00.002-05:00

Your opinion and reflection please.

What do you think? Are you part of the lost generation? In what ways are you or are you NOT?

2010-03-08T08:26:00.002-05:00

Consider your Africa project, both the tri-board and the oral presentation. What do you feel you did well? What would you have improved? If you could have done it over, what would you have done differently?

2009-10-01T11:24:00.003-04:00

Reflect on the movie "T-Shirt Travels." What did you learn that you found interesting/sad/thought-provoking/encouraging. . ." Respond with at least three sentences. (Due by Wednesday, October 7.)

Thanksgiving Traditions

2008-11-19T21:54:00.004-05:00

Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday. I'd like my American students to comment on their Thanksgiving traditions and maybe say what they're thankful for. I hope that our friends in China and Korea will join us by commenting or asking questions about Thanksgiving and maybe tell us about some special holidays they celebrate in their countries.

The DMZ

2008-10-23T07:19:00.004-04:00

Today was one of those days that make you say, "I can't believe what I'm seeing. And in 2008!" Today we went to the DMZ, Demilitarized Zone. Its the buffer space between Communist North Korea and free South Korea. North Korea is determined they are not going to let their people leave. There was barbed wire and checkpoints everywhere. Most of the time we were not allowed to take photos. It was unreal. We did go to an area which is called Tunnel #3. Several years ago, it was discovered that Kim Jung-Il, the dictator of No. Korea had several tunnels built. A high-ranking officer from North Korea ratted him out and four of the tunnels were found. The plan was that North Korea could invade South Korea and would be able to send in 30,000 troops an hour. WOW! North Korea even smeared coal on the tunnel walls so that they could say the tunnels were just coal mines! (Sad truth is - there isn't even any coal to be mined in that area!) But it was really scary to see what a dictorial regime is capable of doing and how precarious and precious our freedom can be. (My Dad earned a Bronze Star in the Korean War, so it was especially touching to me.)
On to your questions, and you sure have a lot!
Buddhist praying styles are that they take off their shoes before entering the temple. They get down on their knees and put their hands together with their fingers touching their forheads and sing/chant a mantra. They also leave little tokens and gifts for Buddha. They seem to be very devout.
I have seen sparrows. Not in the city, but at the monuments and parks. That seems to be where they like to hang out. Despite Mao's efforts, they seem to be thriving.
Most of the newspaper in both Korea and China have been in Korean and Chinese. Here in Korea, the only one I've really been able to get a hold of is Financial News, and with the state of the US economy, that's not one I really want to read!
I have only seen factories from afar. When China decided to clean up for the Olympics, they actually moved a lot of factories out to the rural areas. There is still TONS of building going on in Shanghai and Beijing, but not so much in Seoul. (There's a joke in Shanghai: What bird will never be extinct in Shanghai? The crane. There are cranes EVERYWHERE for building.)
The cities are very modern. The only "traditions" I have really seen have been the religious ones and the cultural performances I've seen. (Like the Beijing Opera and the Korean Folk Museum) Other than that, people act very much like you do. I was told people in Korea would be very pushy, but I haven't found that to be so at all. It's pretty crowded, but all bg cities are. And you take your life in your hands when you try to cross the street! You guys would think its gay, but the Asians often link arms and put their arms around one another while they're walking. Its just the way they do things.
To my knowledge, marriages are not arranged except in some very old families. I've been told that families really frown upon marrying another race though. I don't know if the young people are paying any attention though because out on the streets there were many mixed couples. (Maybe they are just hanging out and will never marry. I don't know.)
The police cars are small. I haven't seen many of them either. I did find a fire station and took pictures of the fire trucks for you EMS guys. I have a picture I thin from the Forbidden Palace where the police "cars" are just little golf carts.
The boys and girls do go to school together. In China the schools were very organized and the kids very well-behaved. In Korea, the kids were more relaxed in class. But as I told you, many of them do "institutes" after class so that they can do better on their tests. They get so tired, they often fall asleep in class! The competition is intense!
The roads in the cities are like ours. Big freeways, traffic lights, speeding, etc. In the older areas, the streets are narrower, but still wide enough for traffic. Large highways link all parts of the country.
I don't know of any festivals going on right now. Down the street from our hotel is a large park and they seem to be doing something on a regular basis. Bands and singers, etc. The kids hang out and listen to the music.
I wish I could take more pictures to show you what I mean by "fashionable." I couldn't go around taking pictures or someone was going to think I was a pervert or something! Look at the bottom of the blog and you'll see the three I posted. The girls dress up like they just stepped out of the pages of a fashion magazine! (To get the pictures of the Beijing University students, I said, "I'm an American teacher and I told my students I'd post some pictures of some hot Chinese young people. May I take your picture?" That's what made them smile!)
The kids listen to some American music, but a lot of it sounds like your kind of music but in Chines. I've seen billboards and posters around and though I can't read it, its obviously some Asian singers and such.
I saw military people all over the place at the DMZ and at some of the monuments and historical sights. Here in Korea, they have a channel called AFN, Armed Forces Network, and its obviously for the American service men and women stationed in Korea.
I don't much about the welfare system at all. Since China is Communist, they have a health plan and I believe there's guaranteed work. From what I've seen and heard, it seems like Korea is a lot like us. For health. I really don't think there is much of a welfare system. They have strong families and I think they would be too proud to accept it. I could be wrong though. WE can research it later.
I think the people are MUCH healthier here. Their meals have a lot of fresh vegetables and seafood, though the Koreans eat more meat than the Chinese. I have not seen ONE overweight Asian person. I kid you not!
I don't know what holidays they have. Again, we can research that. High school kids go 40 weeks a year. That's 4 weeks longer than you.
I don't know about their nightclubs.
Korea has a voting systems very similar to ours. They elect a Congress and President for Five years. China is a Communist country and has only one party, so you don't have a choice. I had heard, and it seems to be true, that the Chinese are very satisfied with the government and what its doing for the people. But then again I didn't talk to everyone. Its obvious though that the government has done a lot to improve the lives of the people. I read an article before I left that the Chinese young people don't even miss not having the same freedoms we have in America. We can talk about that when I get back.
I don't know the age to vote. We'll have to find out.
I immediately switched to Asian time. Didn't sleep much on the plane when I flew out, so when I got here the first night I was exhausted and immediately fell asleep and got on Asian time.
Sorry I can't bring you all T-shirts. I'm just an American teacher on an American teacher's salary! Yes, there are men and women teachers here. Not many men though. And the teacher all seem so young. I don't know what happens to the old ones!
The food in Korea is VERY spicy. They have a traditional dish they eat all the time called KimChi. Its VERY spicy.
The police officers don't carry guns, just billy clubs. And I asked our guide about jails. She said they were bad and nobody would ever want to end up in one.
When students misbehave, they are sent to a counselor who counsels them. Apparently that's all that's needed! Asians have a very strong sense of group. As an individual, you don't want to do anything that would bring harm to the group, whether it you family or class. It would be shameful.
I haven't seem a private home, but I understand the apartments are fairly small. Just too many people living in one area.
No, I didn't buy knock offs. I'm not into name brands, so I don't care if they are Gucci or Coach.
OKAY, I think I answered all the questions! Let me know if I missed one!

This'll probably be my last blog from Asia. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for us and Saturday we fly back home. I have really enjoyed your interest and if you have more questions, I'll try to get to them during my airport layover.

Wednesday

2008-10-22T10:19:00.002-04:00

We visited a most fascinating school today, Seoul Foreign School. It is amazing, but them again, parents have to spend $25,000 just to send their kids there!
Today we also went to the Korean National Folk Museum and saw many of their cultural crafts. The Koreans have a history of being excellent knot-tiers, as in macrame. The work is beautiful. This afternoon we went to the Korean War Memorial. What a sobering site, as war memorials often are.
Tomorrow we go to the DMZ, which is the area between communist North Korea and free South Korea. We have been told that the security if very strict. We even have to bring our passports with us! (Passports are serious business!)
Speaking of serious business. . .third period, are you being smart and making intelligent choices?
Well, since we are exactly 12 hours ahead of you, its late. Thanks for all the questions from Ms. Boria's. I hope to get to them soon. Or else we'll just have to have a big discussion when I get back.

I'm in Korea now!

2008-10-21T09:43:00.005-04:00

I miss you guys too! I can't believe its only been just over a week! It seems like I've been here much longer than that!
To answer more of your questions. . .
The cities are very clean, both in China and Korea. The only houses I've seen have been out in the rural areas and they have been fairly poor, but in the city everyone lives in apartments. They are EVERYWHERE! The skyscrapers are mostly for housing and they are 40-50 stories high!
I sat next to a man who works for Hyundai on the plane from Beijing to Seoul and he told me the average salary for college/career types is about $36,000. But an apartment in the city can cost $1 million dollars! And then they are very small. Speaking of Hyundais, they are everywhere. Our tour bus is Hyundai and I have seen Hyundai semis too!
I don't know about wrestling. We did a Skype with Korean students and a high school in San Antonio Texas and Houston Texas and the Korean kids said they study all the time. They start school at about 7 and get out at about 4:30. Then they all take these tutoring classes called institutes and don't get home til 10 or 11! They are under enormous pressure to do well and get into a good college so that they can have a good life. The Korean students are more rowdy like you guys. Very friendly and outgoing. They really like the chance to be able to practice English.
We have a guide who speaks great English. I have learned the characters for person, big, work, mountain, and a few others I can''t think of right now.
I don't know what the prisons are like. But if I remember I will ask our guide tomorrow.
The teacher we met in China was wearing jeans which surprised me, but in Korea, they are much more formal. Everyone wears suits of nice clothes. All the teachers are very young. It makes me wonder what happened to the old ones!!! Its funny because in Korea, the students have nice uniforms with ties and vests, but they all wear slippers! Everywhere in Korea, you leave your shoes at the door and wear socks or slippers.
They do wear brand name clothes. I have seen stores for Adidas, Nike, etc. No Hot Topic though.
The kids go to school 40 weeks in high school. Middle goes 38 and elementary 36 if I remember correctly.
No Mao jackets, but there are some beautiful traditional clothes and when I get a free minute, I will go and buy myself a shirt. The clothes I have seen are a bit cheaper than in the US. Many of the young people are really into fashion. (See pix at bottom.) The clothes seem expensive though because $1.00 is about 10,000 Kwon (the Korean currency), so its funny to deal in such huge numbers and you li terally have to carry around wads of money to pay for stuff.
I don't know about biofuels, but they are really pushing mass transit. You have to pay a small fortune for a license for a car and parking charges are determined by the size of the car. Plus, I told you that you are restricted on how often you can drive.
The health care system in Korea seems to be about the same as the US from what I've been told.
I'll try to post a few more pictures.
The common jobs are the same as the ones in the US.
You guys take care now. Wish I could post more, but I'm VERY busy. I hope that when I get back I can set you guys up with Chinese and Korean students for podcasting, email and maybe even Skyppe.

Wow! What great questions!

2008-10-17T12:01:00.003-04:00

Ms. Boria's class is FULL of great questions! I'll try to answer them!
I didn't eat any of the creepy foods, though I was willing! I just wasn't able to amke it back down there. Some of the other teachers ate seahorses. One gagged and spat it out, the other threw up and another said it was good, especially the eyeballs!
The Great Wall was GREAT! I made it all the way to the top of the summit (The only woman in our group who did!) so I treated myself to an "I climbed the Great WAll T-shirt." It was amazing! I have lots of pictures to show you.
I didn't see the frozen Mao because the line was WAY too long. I would've had to stand in it all day!
The teenagers in the big cities dress just like you do. Some of them are really fashionable though. There are two McDonald's near our hotel. The stuff they serve isn't at all the what you get in the US - no Big Macs or Quarter Pounders. Everyone really seems to love the fries though. I'm not sure what the other stuff is that they serve in there!
I saw beautiful art work at the museums in Shanghai and Beijing. This morning we went to a calligraphy class at Beijing University and the artist demonstrated his techniques. His work is so beautiful, I bought some prints that I'll show to you.
We visited a school here in Beijing. It was specially for students who wanted to learn English. In fact, I hope to be able to fix it so you guys cna blog and email each other. The school was a lot like US schools the way they look. They had nice technology like we do. I observed in one of the classes and i couldn't believe how well-behaved the students were. At the beginning of class, the teacher said, "Class, rise," and they all did. She said "Good morning, class," and they said, "Good morning, Ms. Shei." Then she said, "Class will begin. Please sit." And they did. The class was very well organized. They did a lesson on the 5 W's and how to write a news story. The students had to stand to answer a question when called upon. But the teacher joked with them as well too. There wer 45 students in the class, but it only seemed like 20. They don't have bells; they play music, like chimes, in between classes. EAch class is 45 minutes long and the students get 10 minutes between classes. But when the bell rings, they don't all just rush out. It took a few minute to finish up what they were doing and they seemed to act like that was normal. But in the halls, they were pushing each other and joking around like you guys do!
I did not see any cultural rituals except when we visited a Buddhist temple and the people were praying in the Buddhist style.
I did not see a shark in the open air market. And I didn't eat any crickets. Or roaches!
Hi, John!
Gas was about $3 a liter if I remember correctly. But I haven't seen many gas stations. People are restricted on how often they can drive their cars. Only four days a week. Plus I'm told it costs a fortune to license the, so it keeps people from driving. There are tons and tons and tons of bicycles and motor scooters. The people all drive like crazy people, weaving in and out of each other. And they don't seem to know how lanes are supposed to work.
I went to Pearl Tower and it was very cool. I have pictures to show you.
Most of the people I've met and the students at school are polite, but not formal. At the toursit places and national monuments, people were very rude. Pushing and shoving to get in line or take a picture. I guess that's what happens when you have 15 million people in one city! Also, the vendors in the street are something else! They holler at you to try to get you to buy their stuff. A couple even grabbed me to keep me from walking away! (BTW, there are TONS of knock-offs here. You can buy 2"rolexes" for $5 or a "Gucci" bag for 40 yuan.
The only martial arts I saw were people doing Tai Chi in the park. Some practiced with swords. Also the Beijing Opera is not really and opera. Its more of a demonstration of martial arts and aerobatics in super fancy costumes.
The people are bottle water crazy. Supposedly, the water has bacteria and you shouldn't drink it out of the tap. They also drink beer and wine with meals, but most often tea. Jasmine tea is very popular here. Of course the kids drink Coke too.
The money is the yuan. 100 yuan is about $14.76. I'll bring some back to show you.
The public bathrooms are disgusting like the ones I told you about in Greece. And you have to bring your own paper. We are always hoping we'll get a "western" toilet. The ones in the hotel
are like ours though.
The weather has been beautiful. Its autumn and the leaves are changing colors. Hotter than I expected, but very comfortable.
I didn't ask how much teachers get paid. They only teach 3 classes four days a week. So they get a LOT of time for planning!
No, Charles, the only black people I've seen have been tourists. Black people aren't native to China and they weren't brought there by anyone either, so. . .
Well, did I answer all your questions! I sure tried! It was great to see how interested you all are! Hope all is going well for you! Tomorrow I go to Seoul Korea. Hope to get more great questions!

So far. . .

2008-10-15T11:11:00.002-04:00

Nee How!
This has been an absolutely incredible trip! We have packed so much into these four(?) days! It feels like I've been traveling four months.
Shanghai was like nothing you'd ever imagine. Skyscrapers everywhere! Not just a few blocks of them like downtown Miami or Tampa, but literally acres and acres of them. I guess housing 14 million people in a small space makes it necessary.
We took the Maglev (magnetic levitation) train from the airport to our hotel. The thing literally floats on a magnet and travel 430 km/hr (about 260 mph). Went up to the Pearl Tower which is a beautiful needle structure and overlooks the city. Stayed at a beautiful refurbished hotel called Astor House. Went to the Old Shanghai Museum and took tons of pictures to use for school
We traveled from Shanghai to a "water town" very much like Venice, but Chinese if you can imagine. It was gorgeous but somewhat touristy and not what I expected.
The new Shanghai Museum was spectacular. Had all the stuff that I have pictures of in my history books. Saw the Shanghai Acrobats. What strength and agility!! Very impressive!
Went to beautiful Yu Gardens (which is an oxymoron since Yu means Gardens. It was beautiful. Also to a Buddhist Temple where they have the biggest Buddha in the world carved out of a single piece of jade.
Flew from Shanghai to Beijing yesterday. (Learning a little Chinese and making sense of the characters. Bei means north and Jing means capital.) Our hotel here is VERY nice.
This morning we went to Tianenmen Square. Mao's Mausoleum is there as well and the line went on for miles of Chinese folks waiting to see Mao! (They keep his body frozen down below, and lift him out each day so he can be observed!)
Also went to the Forbidden City. Huge and again, very impressive. Met with our sister school this afternoon. Lots of very nice teachers and of course bunches of kids. More on that later. It looks like everything is going to work out very well for my project. What a relief!
Tomorrow, the Great Wall.

Hungry?

2008-10-15T11:10:00.001-04:00

Check out my slide show for cool slide of food you may or may not want to eat!

I''m in China!

2008-10-14T11:18:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone or I could say Nee-how, which is "Hello!" in Chinese.

This trip has been absolutely incredible! I have seen so many things in the three days I have been here it will absolutely amaze you.

I'm in a crunch for time, but I'll try to post pictures later. In the meantime, is there anything you want to know, or is there anything I can try to find out from you while I'm here?

Click the post comment link and Ill get an email.

Hope everything is going well. Take care.
Ms. T.

Posting

2008-09-09T15:10:00.004-04:00

For those of you experiencing trouble. . . click the link that says Comments; it will take you to a page where you can post.