Day 105 TGIF with the Grinch and friends :)

I love my Fridays....I have just two classes, 3rd and 9th periods.  This Friday was even better- no teaching! I had a number of students out of class on Friday as they were traveling to go take their SAT's on Saturday- IN JAPAN!  I marvel at the expense these kids' parents go through to get them prepared to attend universities in the United States.  It takes both sets of grandparents, and their parents to support their ONE CHILD in private education in high school, and then at universities abroad.  No wonder these kids feel such tremendous pressure to succeed in school- six adults are banking on it- quite literally.

Thanks to my Amazon Prime account, and my VPN to get around the Great
Firewall, I was able to show them one of the Christmas classics (in my
book, that is :)  They love all things American, and they LOVED this cartoon!

They are naturally curious about American culture and customs.  Christmas is not really celebrated here, as it is a Christian holiday.  China is largely Buddhist, and if not that, mostly agnostic.  Before I showed the film, which was made in 1966, I told them the story of this show and A Charlie Brown Christmas would play on TV, typically the night of December 1st.  These two shows signaled the start of the holiday season for me as a child.  I couldn't wait for the Sears and JC Penney's Christmas catalogs to arrive in the mail so I could mark all the toys and clothes I wanted from Santa Claus. (What I didn't mention to the kids is how the stores nowadays are decorated for Christmas before Halloween- but that would make no sense to them, as they don't really celebrate Halloween, either.)

It was so funny watching these Asian kids watch this show.
They were embarrassed by their fits of giggling, covering
their mouths to hide their laughter :)))

They especially cracked up at Max.  The harder they laughed, the more
I laughed.  I was crying, I was laughing so much :)))

It was so much fin watching this show for the umpteenth time, but this time through the eyes of Asian kids who had never seen such a thing.  They had never even heard of Dr. Suess.  When I asked later what they thought of the show, one boy commented that he "admired the clever use of rhyming words."  Another girl said, "The artists were very creative, weren't they?"  Now, there really was a good reason why I showed this cartoon, not just for a blow-off Friday in Psychology class.  

We just finished our unit on psychopathology, or the study of mental disorders.  I asked them to watch the cartoon, and see if they could properly diagnose the Grinch with an Axis I and Axis II disorder.  They had to substantiate their diagnosis by indicating which symptoms they believed were exhibited by the Grinch.  After our discussion, I then showed them a clip of a psychiatrist from UCLA.  In this clip, she offered her psychoanalysis of the Grinch.  By golly, THEY GOT IT!!! Asian kids love it when they are right about something, lol.  (Believe me, they've tried to correct me a time or two in class already this year.)  The kids had so much fun, they wanted to watch another cartoon and diagnose somebody else.  I would show them 'A Charlie Brown Christmas', but everybody already knows that Charlie Brown is suffering from a major depressive episode, perhaps brought on by the winter season :)  In the meantime, ain't nobody got time for such foolishness; we have an exam on Monday!

Though it was still cold on Friday, the air was clear, the sun was out, and
the wind had died down.  After lunch, Zuong, Santosh, Carlos and I stepped
out to the alley market to run an errand- and to get some cotton candy!

At 7pm, a group of us met on the subway platform for a night out on the
town.  We were headed to the Chaoyang district on the east side of
the city where there's a large ex-pat community, complete with
 Western luxuries (as in shopping, restaurants, and bars :)

As usual, our friend Adam was running late.  The boy
is always a day late and an RMB short, lol.  Even on the
train, he didn't move fast enough for a good seat.  So funny.

Zuong, my Vietnamese girlie, and I were hungry for some BBQ :)

This was a beautiful tree in front of a hotel.
The streets on this side of town are decorated for Christmas :)

Me and my hiking buddy, Hank- long time, no see!
Or in Mandarin, "Hao jiu, mei jian"

We had dinner at the Home Plate. OMG!!!  Where has this place been all of
my China life?!  My pulled pork sandwich with Kansas City BBQ
sauce, fries, slaw, and a Coke was TO DIE FOR :)))  I ate it ALL.
We were there to support our friend Rob, who was performing that night.
Rob is from NYC and teaches music and guitar at BNDS. 

Carlos is my office buddy who teaches English.  He's a former Marine
paratrooper, and taught ESL in Texas before coming to BNDS this year.
He and Rob are part of the group of ten bringing in the New Year
in freezing a** cold Harbin.  I think some of the group plan to stay
drunk for three days, so as to not feel the pain of the -36 degree temperature.

And this is my buddy Santosh, who teaches physics at BNDS.  We had just
figured out that we will be travel buddies the end of January.  We
both are planning to return to the States for our extended break and
we are on the same Qatar Airways flights from Beijing to Doha
(Qatar), and Doha to JFK.  From there we'll part company, as he heads
home to his wife in Orlando, and I will travel on to Indianapolis.
I leave Beijing on January 28th for 30+ hours of flying.  The funny
thing is, I am flying the OTHER way around the world, and I will
land in Indianapolis at 6:42pm, STILL on January 28th!
Now don't that beat all??

G'nite, y'all!