Day 274 Fragrant Hills

Saturday, Len and I made a gallant attempt at exploring the west side of Beijing.  We consulted the map, bus routes, subway routes, and decided that given the beautiful day, we'd just walk.  That was the first mistake.

We walked.

and we walked.

and we walked some more.

We walked so far out of the city we saw peasants driving
horse drawn carts and wagons.  Still, on we walked.

We were trying to get south west of town, to the Garden Expo Park.  It looked interesting; it had a river, lots of green space...but we just couldn't get from here to there.  We ended up on a greenway, which seemed interesting if we only had bikes.  We got hungry and caved in to a street vendor for some type of sesame flat bread.  In the end, we FINALLY found a subway stop and boarded for the Garden Expo Park.

By the time we arrived close to the park, the pollution
was on it's way up, my cheerful demeanor was on it's way
down, and the park was close to closing time.  I took
a picture from the train platform of the buses that also
run in the area, and we boarded the next train for home.
Oh well, at least we got some exercise for the day.
Correction, a LOT of exercise for the day.

I woke up the following day with a renewed spirit to spend
an afternoon in a park. This time we headed to Fragrant
Hills Park packed with a picnic lunch :)
 

As we entered through the gate, some sassafras pointed out to
me that the ancient temples and architecture was starting
to all look the same.  I reminded him of the delicious
sandwiches that were in his near future, which was way more
than I had to look forward to on yesterday's wild goose chase :)

Fragrant Hills is a former imperial garden
that sits at the foot of the Western mountains.
These are the mountains visible from my
apartment windows on a good air day in Beijing.

The park was established in 1186 in the Jin Dynasty.

The Pagoda of the Zongjing Monastery was
the only structure left standing after the attack
in 1900 by the Eight Nation Alliance.

If the hills are anything, they are fragrant :)

The clean air smelled like perfume :)

I stuck my nose in every flower :)

                                           

And I climbed a few trees :)

We walked around the park and pond, and
settled upon a shady spot behind the pagoda
to spread the blanket and have our lunch.
And then, of course, a nap- it's the Chinese way!

It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon :)

On our way back to the bus stop, we saw this
guy making noodles, and it was the coolest thing.
He had this weird shaped blade that he scraped
along the dough and into the boiling broth.
It reminded me of making German spaetzle- yum!

Several stalls had this spinning hot stone. We
then saw a mixture of eggs and flour that was
spread ultra thin with what looked like a
drywall spatula! I later learned they are called
jian bing, which they add green onions,
spices and hotdogs to make a sammich. So weird.

But you know, it wasn't nearly as weird as
seeing a male poodle with pink ears and
a pink poofy tail hiking his leg on car tires.
Either he suffers from gender dysphoria,
or his owner does- I'm not really sure.
What can I say?  It's the Chinese way. 

G'nite, y'all!

Day 272 One take away for my seniors

Friday, May 29th was the last day for our BNDS seniors.  They were released to return to their families for some much needed rest, and they will come back for graduation on June 19th.  After that, they are headed to some of the most competitive universities the United States has to offer.  I worry about my Chinese babies and their ability to adapt to Western life.  So much is riding on their success in the US, quite literally.  

It is one of the major downsides to the One Child Policy, which was modified in 2014.  Both sets of grandparents and the parents are all 'banking' on their one child to get the very best education from their 'dream school.'  It takes six adults pooling their financial resources together for their one child to attend the best of the best. In turn, the child is expected to return to the family and support them in their later years.  I had an interesting conversation with my doctor last week about the trials and tribulations of living with your parents and in-laws when you are a grown married woman with a child of your own...except that nothing is your 'own', not your home (the parents pay for it) or your child (the grandparents assume much of the care in raising your only child).  As such, these kids (and adults) feel a tremendous burden of responsibility to respect and be obedient to the adults in their life. Likewise, many of these kids' career choices have already been decided for them. And in some of the more traditional families, their spouse will one day be decided for them, too- only after they make a success of their life first.  It's a different culture, for sure. 

For my last day with seniors, I had a few special things planned for them.  I wanted to share with them an excerpt from Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture."  If you have not seen this Last Lecture in its entirety (it's a little over an hour long), you should do yourself the favor and You Tube it.  While he was a highly respected and tenured professor at Carnegie Mellon University, his personal story and pearls of wisdom are powerful for any age audience.  This was a shortened version of the Last Lecture which appeared on Oprah.  Please watch :)

Just a few months before his death, he was asked by the

graduating class to give the commencement address.  His

words seemed an appropriate send off to my own students.

After they watched these two video clips, I shared my own words of wisdom.  I related my coming to China, and all the changes that laid in store for me, to the changes they are about to experience in my home country.  I shared some funny stories of my early days here, and how my senses were overwhelmed at first. They, too, will feel the same in a few short months. Then I presented them with a gift....

I had help from one of my Chinese colleagues to procure twenty two copies of Dr. Suess' Oh, The Places You'll Go!  I introduced the kids to Dr. Suess back at Christmas time when we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and we 'diagnosed' him.  They loved his rhyming prose. So, I got the names of the universities my students will be headed to in August from the Counseling Center, and I wrote a personal message in each book and gift wrapped them.  These kids have blessed my life immensely this year, and I wanted to do something special for them.  They have truly been remarkable, in every way possible.  

Me and Miss Sunny Sun, who, with the permission
of her parents, will be studying psychology at a 
Massachusetts university ;)  So proud of her!

While the seniors opened their gifts, and read the

messages I had written for them inside, I then played 

a 'read aloud version' of Oh, The Places You'll Go.

Seeing these 18 year old kids, holding their own books,

and turning the pages with the narrator, is an image I will

never forget. So childlike in following the words on each

 page, yet they are now well on their way to adulthood.

It was beautiful, y'all.  I couldn't help but tear up.

At the end of the story, I had each of the kids take out a sheet of paper, for their final assignment.  I wanted them to write just one 'take away' from their experience with me, or something they learned from having taken AP Psychology, a subject still very foreign and often misunderstood in their culture.  Their responses ranged from poignant to sassy to honestly beautiful...here are a few...

"Wherever I am, whatever I am doing, I will do things happily and passionately like Mrs. McDaniel."

"We learned it is okay to not be perfect, because perfect can be boring.  We can make mistakes and it is okay, because like Mrs. McDaniel taught us, those mistakes are just a part of learning to be better."

"My take away is Mrs. McDaniel is very anal, and I did not know what that was before, but I see I am anal, too!  (This one cracked me up!)

"I hope I can be as humanistic as Mrs. McDaniel.  She taught us what it means to have unconditional positive regard.  She explains we have our own free will to make choices and do what we want, but with that free will comes great responsibility to hurt or help others by our words and actions."

"My one great take away is that it is okay for me to be myself, not what others expect of me.  I can pursue my dreams because they are MINE."

"My one take away is the positive attitude and passion of Mrs. McDaniel.  And I like her dresses. But one thing, Could you maybe give students copies of your lecture notes so we don't have to write so much?!  I like hearing your stories and then I forget to write."  (LOL, point taken, but my college students have been asking me for my lecture notes for years....I likely will not be giving in!  It's one way I am sure to keep y'all engaged!!!)

"In my family, in my community, no one lives their lives as you do.  You pursue your dreams despite all obstacles.   You treat everyone you meet genuinely.  You have taught me I can do the same.  I do not have to be afraid, or quiet, and I can have dreams, too.  I could be a therapist!  I could be a neuro-psychologist!  I can do research!  You are the one who gives me faith that I am capable for all of these things and more.  Please don't forget me when I leave for UCLA.  I will never forget you."

Thank you, my BNDS China girls, Akaisha and Brianna,
while you shared with me some 'life lessons' I taught you
this year, I promise you, I was often the learner here.
You kids were my teachers.

I will never forget you, or this year.

God bless you all in the coming years :)

Day 271 Some days you take chances :)

The last unit in my A level Psychology course was on Social Psyc, one of my favorite subjects to teach.  In the A level Cambridge program, they must learn four previously conducted experiments, so in this unit we reviewed Milgram's shocking study on obedience, and Zimbardo's famous Stanford Prison Experiment.  I filled them in our own cultural revolution of the 1960's, and some the uglier parts of our country's past (and the far too recent past, as of late) like racial segregation, discrimination, civil disobedience, marches and sit-ins, and violations of civil liberties.  An event in Queens, NYC in March of 1964 caught the attention of social psychologists, which lead to further lab and field experiments on helping behavior and the bystander effect.

A 28 year old white woman, Kitty Genovese, was brutally murdered late at night as she returned from work. Her assailant was a black man, and while Kitty fought for her life and screamed for help, no less than 40 witnesses heard her cries, peered out from the safety of their apartment windows, but still refused to call the police and come to her rescue.  Her attacker left for a time, and she stumbled and crawled to the doorway of an apartment building, still crying for help.  Mosley, her black attacker, came back several minutes later, again repeatedly stabbing her, and she subsequently died in the stairwell.  It sent an outcry throughout the media.  How could Americans have become so callous and cold?  Could the racial tensions of that era, have been the cause of their seeming indifference to her cries for help?

This lead to several lab experiments to study the 'helping behavior' of participants.  The results, however, were questionable. Did they offer a solid explanation of what might happen in a 'real life' situation?  The result was the famous Subway Samaritan field experiment by Pilivian in 1969, conducted as a field experiment on New York City's subway system. My students were required to learn the ins and outs of this experiment  To see the original study, follow the link and click on read the full text here: Subway Samaritans

A few weeks ago, I received permission from
the headmistress of BNDS to take my kids off
campus and to board Beijing's subway system to
conduct our own Subway Samaritan project. (I
also got to sneak in the biblical story of the Good
Samaritan from Luke 10:25-37 in class.  I claim,
"teachable moment" as 'Samaritan' was not making
the translation. They were fascinated by my Bible. :)

The kids were having a great time on our 'field trip' simply
riding the train.  In the foreground is Tao, who has her PhD
in experimental psychology- she researched primates. She
was along for linguistic support- this trip, anyhow.

We actually had work to do- working out the
interior design of the train car, deciding upon
a location for our 'victim' and such.

This kids took interior pics of the car to later sketch...

And lots of pics of each other, of course ;)

With a rough sketch in mind, we set to work out the other
details, like passing out from low blood sugar.

After their CIE's were done, we geared up for
the first trial.  Miss L. was in her teacher's clothes,
posing as a 'twenty something' business woman :)

We decided upon several hypothesis to be tested.  Unlike the original study, we did not examine if race was a factor, or the 'drunk' vs. 'injured' victim.  I was already pushing my American luck to the max without having my kids pretend to be drunk!  We hypothesized that female victims would receive assistance (or sooner assistance) over male victims.  We hypothesized that the afternoon train passengers would offer more assistance as opposed to the early morning commuters (due to the busy-ness of business people on their way too work).  Lastly, we hypothesized that the Chinese, being of a collectivist culture, would have higher rates of helping than Americans, who are from an individualistic culture.  

We also had to take into account the changing world of technology since the 1969 experiment.  The overwhelming majority of passengers in China have some sort of hand-held technology while commuting, and most of those wear headphones- it's the Chinese way to travel these days. A simple auditory cure like moaning and groaning would not suffice.  We needed both an auditory and a visual cue if we were to attract their attention from their video games, Chinese soap operas, and phone calls.

So our 'victims' held their head in their hands,
swayed a bit in their seat, then rolled to the floor.
Mr. H. looks dead- YIKES!

In the five trials we conducted, and this was on the afternoon route, our victim was helped within a matter of seconds....until the fifth 'helper' knocked on the conductor's door for assistance....Oops.  In spite of the kids reciting their debriefing speech once a helper came to their rescue, at the next stop we were temporarily shut down while an unusual incident report was filed...

...we were escorted to a room, where the police entered.
For about 2.7 seconds I thought, "Oh crap, we're all going to a
red jail, I'm going to lose my job, and none of this is good..."

The kids didn't have the good sense to be the least bit concerned!

Look, Mom! You'll never believe what happened at school today!

Thank God Tao was with us. as she clearly explained that we were
NOT with the media staging fake events to discredit the Beijing
Rail System.  We were just kids, repeating an experiment that
has been done all over the world; London, New York, and others.
In fact, unlike Americans, the Chinese all stepped forward to offer
assistance to our victims. With that, they took Tao and my faculty
 cards and snapped photos of them; it's also the Chinese Way.
They then left the room and the kids wanted a group selfie
before we were all hauled off to the pokey. Not really!
They were more than cool about it, but suggested that we
contact the AUTHORITIES before we conduct the experiment
during morning rush hour. Just that word in China scares me a bit.

The kids still want to pursue it; I am understandably reluctant at this point.  I've taken enough chances this week!  I assured them I will revisit the idea with our own school personnel, before we proceed with contacting the AUTHORITIES. 

However, if the media were to become involved, with our present results, things are looking good for China- 100% victim assistance :)  They just may want to pick up the story afterall, since the harrowing incident that occurred on the 5 line this past November: woman dies trapped in subway doors.  

As for me, I've engaged in enough risk taking for awhile.

At least for this week, anyhow.

G'nite, y'all!

Day 268 home brewing

So my friend, Jeanette, has joined the Beijing Home Brewers
Association (or something like that!) and it has taken her months
 to procure all the parts and pieces and ingredients to finally
make her own brew.  Yep, those are our water cooler bottles she
 is using, and I am happy for her because she is happy :)

While the yeast did it's thing for 10-14 days, the mission became how
 to find bottles to package her brew.  Let it be known, I hate beer, I
know nothing about beer, but I am always up for a scavenger hunt.
Trying to find the Western things you want and need in Beijing,
whether it's a cookie sheet for baking, or bottles for home brew,
it's like going on a treasure hunt, and I am always up for an adventure!
We just randomly hit up bars and restaurants, hoping to score on some
empty brown bottles. They had to be brown bottles, that much I know.
Trying to communicate  all of this in a language we do not yet
fully comprehend, and certainly do not speak, was an adventure in itself :)

For the next 10 days, the yeast did it's thing, I guess.

And thankfully Len arrived in Beijing, who happens to know
a thing or two about brewing, as he did so when he lived in
Little Rock, AR.  Show Jeanette what to do next, please!

Again, I know nothing about home brewing,
but my OCD-ness comes in handy to sterilize
 bottles and bottle caps, and to sort them by size :)  

Len primed the first batch to bottle, then
Jeanette primed the second batch, lol.

And we seemed to be in the business of bottling!
Just like Laverne and Shirley, Hasenpfeffer, Inc. :)))

Until we weren't; and then we were on to plan H.

But Laverne (Jeanette) persevered...

...and even Lenny got in on the act,
and we were no longer in Beijing,
but Milwaukee, WI :)))

Tah-dah!  I have no idea how it will taste, but mission accomplished!
No beer for me; I was just happy to oblige :)

G'nite, y'all!

Day 267 Beijing Yeya Lake National Wetland Park

Last Sunday, BNDS provided an opportunity for
faculty, staff and their families to 'enjoy the
beautiful countryside with some exercise' by
visiting Yeya Lake National Wetland Park. I
packed a picnic, and we headed out at 7:00am,
three bus loads of me and my closest Chinese friends :/
  Actually, I only knew a handful of people.

Two hours later (but still in Beijing), we were dropped off at
the park entrance and told to go enjoy our day.  It was a HOT ONE.

This place looked interesting; but my Lord, IT WAS HOT!

I love reading Chinglish signs...."Wetlands are kidney of the earth,
paradise for birds, garden for insects, and a home for man and nature
to coexist in harmony."  I was just hoping to see any of the
"twenty species of beasts."

A bicycle or paddleboat seemed like too much
work, (did I mention it WAS HOT?!) so we opted
to cut the trail in half by crossing the reservoir
wetlands on the public boardwalk, where
"No Striding" was allowed. What does this even mean?!

As we reached the shoreline once again, I spied
a momma duck nesting :)

In the distance, we saw a tower that looked
like a cool shady place to have a picnic lunch.

Somebody is barely tolerating selfie time, lol.

This reminded me of climbing the tower at Oxbow
Park where I grew up.  My initials weren't
carved in this one, though, at least not yet ;)

Mind the Step(s)!  I love the picture, lol.

Once we got up there, it was a relatively quiet and an enjoyable
picnic... then the word got out as we attempted to nap in the shade
Everybody and his xiong ei decided to hang out up in the tower, too.
Our nap was interrupted by a rousing card game next to us, pfsh.

The view would have been more beautiful had it not been so
HOT and hazy.  You could barely see the mountains in the distance.

Still, it was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon <3

G'nite, y'all!