I’ve had the joy of helping about a dozen students write speeches over the last four weeks.  It’s been an amazing experience. I think I’ve learned just as much from them as they have from me.

Cameron and I divided speech club into two levels: Dragons with Lions and Unicorns with Phoenixes. At first, I tried to replicate what was done in last year’s speech club based on the description and book I had received from Caroline. It took me about a week to realize that I was not here last summer and I did not know what had been done; we were putting on speech club for this summer’s students. 🙂

The first week I asked the students to find something that annoyed them or they thought could be improved upon. The point was to get them to take a stance on a subject or state their opinion. I tried to stay away from directly asking, “What problems exist in China?” but I still felt like I was asking them to be critical about their lives and their surroundings. Cameron made a great point and said something like, “So maybe they like to talk about the meaning of happiness or how to be content, but what’s so wrong with that. Maybe they’re on to something. Maybe we don’t talk about happiness enough in the USA.”

The following week, I took a new approach to speech club. I told them that they could write about whatever topic they wanted. The only rule was that it had to be something they were passionate about. I also incorporated fun games into speech club. I had them write and narrate a fairy tale to the their peers. I encouraged them to use hand gestures and a loud voice. Some students came up to me after class and said, “That was so cool. My first time performing in front of my class.” These changes made speech club more of a fun after school activity for the students.

But this week, it is no longer fun and games. It’s crunch time. Today, I held office hours to give students with questions a chance to ask me about their speeches. The speech contest is on Friday. I know each of these students’ speeches by heart now and although I continue to give them advice, I have to say, I’m very impressed by what they’ve come up with. They went from not being able to choose a topic to having complete speeches about a topic that really interests them! I can’t wait to hear them on Friday.

Shout out to Miryam and Eliot who have also been running the Unicorn/Phoenix part of Speech Club!

*Another shout out to Sofia, who has been giving great advice on performing speeches during her individual sessions. 🙂 Teamwork rules!

There is so much to write about and not enough time to write. Every day brings new Jishou adventures. Part of me wants to blog about every meal that I’ve eaten with students, every conversation that I’ve had with the locals, and each day of class that I’ve taught so far, but there’s just not enough time.

Some of my most intriguing conversations have occurred during individual sessions. For twenty minutes, I have a chance to ask my students about their day. Most of my students are remarkably candid and share personal information during these sessions. (I keep wondering if I was this open with my Princeton in Beijing teachers two summers ago.)

One of my students told me about his dream to live in Australia and swim all day. Instead of pulling out the parent card, I simply listened to him. He told me that he wants to travel the world before he is 40 years old, and then he wants to settle down in the Australian countryside. Hearing a 14 year old boy tell me about his bucket list reminded me to keep my own bucket list in mind as I enter my senior year.

Yesterday, I had a wonderful individual session with Victoria. Victoria stood me up as last week, so I asked Kelsey if I could have her for individual session again this week. Somehow, I got her talking about how she is going to college to be a flight attendant. You should have seen the way her face lit up when she started to tell me about her plans to travel to France, the USA, and Japan. Once I got her talking, she wouldn’t stop.

Not all of the individual sessions have been about rainbows and butterflies. There have been a few sessions that have left me feeling heavier than before. Last Wednesday, one of my students told me a story that brought tears to my eyes.

I cherish the time that I get to spend with my students and listen to them tell me their life stories. I have two and a half more weeks left to hear as many more stories as possible. Wish me luck! 🙂

–Alyssa

On Saturday, Kelsey knocked on my bedroom door at 6:15am and we started to get ready for our morning hike. We peeked out the window to look down at the front of the apartment and sure enough, 8 students were waiting for us wearing casual clothes and looking like it was 3pm in the afternoon (not 6 o’clock in the morning). Bamboo, Gaily, Anastasia, Kelly, Doris, Diana, Shining, and Bob had all come out for the trek; Christian also joined.

At one point during the hike, Bamboo asked me about the pronunciation of “worry about” and “encouragement.” Before long I was speaking in a British accent to emphasize that Americans make the “d” sound for “t” a lot of the time. water. little. butter. I’ll have to keep that accent trick in mind when I’m teaching my class because Bamboo and Anastasia thought I was hilarious.

As we took the first steps of the hike, Bamboo told us that the staircase we were climbing has 633 stairs. “Oh great!” I said, but I think Christian and Kelsey were the only two that caught my sarcasm. On the way up the mountain, we saw a lot of elderly people doing tai chi and exercising. We also saw people carrying baskets with water jugs. The local people fill their water bottles in the spring for drinking water.

While I was initially hesitant to go on the hike, I’m glad that I did. It was a great chance to spend time with the students. I think it also gave me an opportunity to get to know them better and feel comfortable around them. It might have been Fiona that said some of the most touching moments will happen outside of the classroom and I’m doing my best to explore that piece of advice.

Well, it’s already Sunday night and I’ve got a lesson to teach tomorrow. Good-bye for now!
Alyssa

We spent the last two nights in Wugao, a Miao village high up in the mountains. Kelsey and I were paired together to be roommates and we did our best to get the full Miao experience. At first, our host parents seemed hesitant to meet us and forced the daughter (who is learning Mandarin in school) to converse with us.

By the end of the day, our host father was asking us to join him for dinner. I don’t know what brought about his change of heart, but Kelsey and I quickly embraced the chance to bond with our host fam. I tried to explain that we had already eaten but would still love to hang out around the dinner table, but our host father was persistent and before we knew it we were eating, drinking, and laughing together. At one point in the conversation, Kelsey and I asked about the Miao hairstyle. My host father cracked up thinking about what I would look like if my hair was fixed like the traditional Miao bun.

The next day, two Miao women offered to do my hair after breakfast. I agreed and after a lot of brushing, they succeeded in getting my tangled, curly hair into a tight bun. They even decorated it with traditional string, flowers and combs. I wore my hair like that for the rest of the day and there were definitely a few times that my fellow SoSers mistook me for a Miao villager. I think my favorite reaction came from the students when we visited the primary school. They all stared at me with a perplexed face that read something like, “Her hair looks familiar, but the rest of her doesn’t…”

After dinner, the two ladies that did my hair came to teach our SoS group how to sing and dance. Before I knew it, I was being pulled onstage to teach everyone the song. While I failed at memorizing the song lyrics, I think I succeeded in connecting with the two Miao women. It just goes to show that embracing a piece of someone else’s culture (in this case, putting my hair in a high bun for a day) can go a long way.

Okay, I’ve got to get to sleep now. I hope Kelsey talked about the dead bird in her blog post! Good night!

Best,
Alyssa (a.k.a Miao Princess)

This summer is going to be awesome. I’m 100% sure!

To say that I’m “excited” for Jishou is a huge understatement. Thrilled is more like it. I have to resist the urge to jump up and down when I describe my summer plans to people. That might sound like an exaggeration, but I distinctly remember wanting to jump out of my seat during the information session after Fiona had told me more about SoS and I had read some of the SoS blogs from summer 2011. Now that I have gotten to know my fellow SoSers, our amazing co-leaders, and the energetic PiA staff, I’m positive that Summer of Service is going to change my life—if it hasn’t already!

I can’t wait to be in a trying environment, where things are not easily accessible. I can’t wait to try my hand at teaching English and form lasting friendships with my students. I can’t wait to experience Chinese culture outside of Beijing and eat amazing Chinese food again. I can’t wait to create hilarious memories with my fellow SoSers that we’ll be laughing about for years to come.

Bring on the inconveniences. Bring on the obstacles. Bring on brushing my teeth with water from a water bottle. Bring on a classroom full of bright-eyed students. Bring on Wild China adventures, Jishou adventures, laughing so hard that I cry, difficult moments that make me want to cry. Bring on everything.

I’m trying to have no expectations, and I think I have been successful so far. Well, 95% successful—I do expect SoS to be mind-blowing.

Woot! Woot! China, here we come!
Alyssa