Nuts and Cats

The nut-seller and his cat. In Chinese they say husbands and wives resemble each other, not pets and owners, but I think they may want to reconsider that saying to include this couple, eh?

Uphill Both Ways

Living across town from school, I spend at least 6 hours a week on the bus. My administration was nice enough to consolidate all my classes into three days – creating the 60 person Franken-class I whined about yesterday – so it’s not soul-crushing, but still, an hour each way puts a kink in your day.

Luckily, my school runs two shuttles to pick up errant teachers from all over town in the morning and deposit them in the evening. It’s a blessing in the morning – it’s heated, I get a seat, and we arrive at school a few minutes before classes start. If Harbin precipitated, we arrive late, and teachers get antsy and grumble and call students. I like watching the other teachers sweat. Humanizes my 16 years of schooling, I guess.

Anyway, the afternoon shuttle leaves an hour after my last class, so I generally opt to take the city bus instead. More time at home, get off the bus before the black of the night, don’t have to sit an hour in the hotel lobby. So that’s what you see up there. Innards of the 203, right at the beginning of its route while it’s still full of empty seats ready to be snapped up by foot-tired English teachers.

Franken-Class

So, um, what drives me to drink right outside the corner shop of an evenin’?

My 60 person Oral English class, that’s what. Sixty nonmajor freshmen, armed with various linguistic capabilities and interests but a uniform, and astonishing, ability to sleep. Through. Anything.

I’ve been putting off writing about them for three weeks now because I was hoping I’d get a grip on the class somehow. It’s not their fault there’s so many of them all at once; it’s actually sort of mine. So, I figured, I’m smart enough, I’ve taught before, I’ve even taught 50 postgrads at once! I can do this!

But nope, apparently I can’t. Can’t yet.

First, I tried my postgrad activities from last year. The language tasks proved too simple, while the life experience and creativity required proved excessive. Students ditched at break.

Colleagues suggested dividing the class into two parallel groups. Lecture hall acoustics won out. Students ditched at break.

Colleagues suggested groupwork. Students found talking to non-native speakers futile. Naptime occurred. Very quiet, very restful. Students ditched at break to sleep more comfortably in their beds.

Class monitor suggested I use the textbook and take attendance twice each period. Class was boring, but organized. I only called on half the students. Exactly nine students ditched at break, and their friends facepalmed as I took attendance a second time and marked them absent.

We try again tomorrow. More textbook, but with brisker time management. More cold calling, with better randomization. More activities, but with full instructions in Chinese as well. More double attendance… this time no longer a surprise blow below the belt, because seriously, who ditches at break?!

In other news, I do love those kids. The class time drives me nuts, but, seriously, today those girls totally owned the Mechanics ladies in their IM basketball tournament. 4-0 to the Internationals. And only stands at over 5’2”. What’s not to love?

I’d Make a Great Balaclava Model

It’s the middle of October, and snow has already fallen. No, it didn’t stick, but there is ice! Outside! In the afternoon!

Sock and hat and glove sales have kicked into overdrive. Socks, up and down the street! On tarps on the ground, on folding tables, out of the backs of trucks! Five kuai for three pairs, ten kuai for seven! I dutifully spent my fiver this morning, and my toes couldn’t be happier.

Yeah, okay, we all know Harbin is cold. MOVING ON.

Malamian

Malamian. With extra ma.

A lemony tang, then a chili heat, and finally, a weird numbing sensation that starts on the sides of your tongue and proceeds to make your entire mouth tingle. Oh and after that you notice the long hand-pulled noodles, and a few bean sprouts and cilantro sprigs hiding at the bottom of your bowl. But they are secondary. We come for the ma.

The ma pepper, proprietary to the Sichuan region but popular all over China, is the key ingredient to a good bowl of malamian (numb-spicy noodles). My boyfriend is obsessed with ma, and this restaurant is the only local shop which truly understands the concept of “extra ma“.

We come here almost every day. I’m not as faithful to a single dish, or even a restaurant; often, I sip an orange soda while waiting for the malamian to be consumed, and try to pick what it is that I want today.

Maybe a standing order of malamian would be easier.

Out to Lunch

Lanzhou Noodle Shop – one of many, but the best in its league.

Winter Vegetables

Guess what?

(If you’re completely stumped, “Winter is coming” is the Harbin version of “chickenbutt”.)

The trucks have arrived in our neighborhood, parking out along the main driveway for whole mornings, trading in gigantic quantities of potatoes, leeks, and Napa cabbage.

Potatoes are immediately hidden away, except for the one sack inexplicably stored in the corner of the landing between the 5th and 6th floors. Every time I walk by, I want to steal one potato from the bag, or at least transfer a neat row to the nearby windowsill. I haven’t, yet. I think I’m scared of invisible security cameras, and unexpected repercussions.

Leeks and cabbages, harder to store, get laid out in neat rows to dry and disinfect in the sun a little. They are taking over the town. No matter where you go, even if it’s the main street of Harbin, there they are, leeks leeks leeks on grass, sidewalks, overhangs, roofs, threaded on string and strung outside windows. The more unwieldy cabbages, however, have been relegated to sidewalks only.

Nobody seems to steal the vegetables. Again, invisible security cameras? Or common honesty. I’d rather believe in the latter, if only because it would permit my potato-on-the-windowsill prank.

Our potatoes. The sack cost 25RMB, or about $4.50.