2004-12-21 - 12:56 p.m.
As of this writing our wonderfully warm december weather has disappeared. According to teachers who were here last year, we have had an incredible fall with very warm temperaturea and a lack of pollution.
Good for us. In fact until yesterday, I was walking around Peter Hall (where all the foreign teachers live) in short sleeves and shorts most of the time.
As of this writing there is 2 inches of snow on the ground, and what appears to be a blizzard brewing.
The chinese students seem to be very cold, and miserable through most of this. Most of them are severely underdressed for the snow, and I am worried about some of them. Many of them come from southern china, and as freshmen this is probably the first snow they have ever seen. The chinese dorms have very little heat, and hot running water for showers is almost non existant. Another reason most chinese seem to be very CRANKY. (taht with the rock hard beds, the squatty potties, and now cold showers in the middle of winter, i'd be very CRANKY too)
We on the other hand are used to the cold having come from Flagstaff AZ, and are having a wonderful time out playing in the snow. (layers, lots of layers, and don't forget that wonderful wool cap to cover the ears!!) We just finished a big snowball fight (I think I lost), and have done snow angels, and built a small snow man. We ahve come inside while we wait for a friend (another foreign teacher) who thinks he can get some truck inner tubes.... oh boy sledding down the road on SIAS (it gets about 3 cars a day), and is this perfectly long downhill slope.....
I think my students like me. Today was our last offical class. I told them their grades, and how to let me know if anything was wrong, and what we could do about it. I was told by most of them I needed to eat my Bowsa (chinese dumplings) today. Apparently on the first real snow tradition says you must eat Bowsa (Bow like a dog's bark sa) to keep your ears from falling off, and going deaf. I'm interested in learning about this tradition, where did it come from and why? (i'm sure it started by soem old chinese mother who couldn't get her kids to eat their bowsa, ie if you dont' eat your bowsa your ears will fall off... and it stuck) I told crissy about this, and she replied "your students must like you to tell you this. None of mine told me." Makes me wonder if they want her ears to fall off...... (I don't, so I fed her some bowsa)
I'll post the shutterfly site for the pictures from today later.
Will
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