This is why we're here . . . (April 2018)
What a wonderful semester! This winter, we have had a variety of opportunities to interact with students here at PKU as we continue with our regular teaching assignments and also respond to various requests for interviews and assistance. For example, "Lily" interviewed us for an article that was published in a student magazine. If I could read the Chinese, I could be more informative -- but the article focuses on our reasons for coming to China, and I'm told the title roughly translates as something like: "Freshmen" in Their Sixties.
We also just learned (through emails and WeChat messages from students) that we are in a video that is posted on several PKU websites as well as their official WeChat account. The story: We helped one of my students who was making a video for a class, and I guess PKU must have picked up the video for promotional purposes. Who would have ever thought that one day we would be the "face" of Peking University??? (The translation is a bit rough--I'm sure it was grammatically correct when I initially responded to the question . . . )
In March, we invited a few of our former students over for an American waffle breakfast. These students are all going to the U.S. this summer, so we thought it would be fun to introduce them to each other and have an informal chat about life in the States. We had helped most of these students with applications, essays, and letters of recommendation -- so we feel like their success is also our success!! Several of them are including a quick trip to California in their summer plans so that they can observe us in our natural habitat . . .
Qiwei Yu ("Kevin") is sitting in the front left and wearing the blue sweater. He is transferring to MIT because he thinks his opportunities in the study of physics are somewhat limited here at PKU. Da Teng ("Dewey") is next to him and wearing glasses and a green plaid shirt. He is going to be at the University of Chicago this summer doing chemical research with a world-renowned chemist. Brigg's former student "Emily" (back row on the left) is THE top student in the College of Economics here at PKU and will be attending UCLA as a visiting student next year (and we are SO sad that we will be back here in Beijing while she's in L.A.! -- We told her that Amy would treat her to an American Thanksgiving and Christmas . . . ) She has been a "regular" at our home this year, often visiting for meals and holidays. Some of you might recognize her as our "Lululemon" model as we take orders and assess sizes for people back home . . .
"Rebecca" (Liu Jiayi) -- pictured here with her friend from Finland -- has also been a regular visitor in our home for the past year. She will be attending a special summer course at Harvard Law School in July, followed by another summer course at Oxford in August. She has a week between the programs, so she is coming to California from Boston "on her way" to London. Yes, she knows her geography, but she really wanted to come visit us while she was in the U.S. She spent several hours here last Saturday planning her trip -- and she's VERY excited to participate in a real American "road trip." Get ready for us, Nate, because we're coming to San Fran!
Last month, we met several of our students at the bowling alley in our apartment complex. It was a "first" for most of them! Luckily, Brigg was on hand to explain not only the rules, but also why they had to wear those stinky, used shoes!
"Samantha" -- high-fiving Brigg in the blurry picture above -- is a survivor of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake that left over 87,000 people dead and 4.8 million people homeless (including Samantha). She wrote a beautiful personal narrative about her experience as one of my class assignments.
I continue to tutor Thomas on Thursday afternoons, and his mother continues to tell me how much he loves coming to our apartment. Cute story: One Thursday his grandmother, who doesn't speak ANY English, was in charge of picking him up. Unbeknownst to me or to Thomas's mother, Xiaomeng, Thomas had told his grandmother that he was supposed to stay late, knowing that after his tutoring time was finished, we would begin playing games. When the grandmother arrived at 6 p.m., we were in the middle of a game of "Sorry." I think she began to suspect something, because she spoke to Thomas very quickly in Chinese, and I understood the word "dinner" (chi fan). I asked Thomas, "Did your grandmother tell you that you needed to go home and eat dinner?" He replied, "No, she said that I needed to leave so that you could eat YOUR dinner." Then the grandmother came over to me, looked me right in the eye, and spoke v...e...r...y s...l...o...w...l...y in Chinese (I think she was apologizing for arriving so late -- I understood "duibuqi"). I asked Thomas what his grandmother was saying, and he hesitated a minute before replying, "Ummm, she said that she wants me to stay and finish playing the game." As I looked closely at him, Thomas finally cracked and began to laugh. He's a cutie -- and we sure enjoy seeing him every week. He LOVES eating! -- so we look for any excuse to incorporate food into our lessons. For example, these pages from our reading books prompted us to make tacos and pancakes -- both new foods for Thomas.
I was somewhat surprised but very flattered to be invited by the PKU English Culture Communication Association as a guest speaker at their April 22 meeting. Brigg accompanied me, and we spent a lovely evening with a group of PKU students whom we had never met before. Following the meeting, they presented us with a set of beautiful "his and her" water (tea) bottles.
I quickly snapped that picture of Brigg chatting with the student group, as I thought he looked particularly dashing in his "tailor-made" clothing -- really, I mean it . . . we have a tailor here, Mr. Shang. He recently made suits for Ethan and Ryan (I hope they fit -- we took the measurements "long distance") and several shirts and a suit for Nate while he and Diana were here visiting:
To top off a very busy and social month, last weekend we had a group of students over who wanted to order pizza and watch an American movie. They were especially interested in eating some American desserts -- so Brigg helped them make chocolate chip cookies and brownies. The brownies, especially, were a hit!
