Translator Extraordinaire

Let me start off by saying that riding a bike in the rain isn't as glorious as a Nike commercial makes it seem, especially not in 50 degree weather, but I must admit that it's still pretty fun. I slowly rode two blocks with an umbrella in my hand before the "I'M A STRONG AMERICAN MAN" side of me took over, causing me to put away my umbrella and ride at maximum danger speed. It was pretty great.

The last few days I've been playing interpreter for the visiting kindergarten teachers from Canada. They are also from a college sponsored school that does many research projects, so I've played translator at many meals and events so far.

The first event, before all the dignitaries that had met me knew I was capable, the biggest boss had brought a teacher from her branch to act as translator. I knew without being told to let her try and translate first, and fill in the gaps if there were any. It was cute watching the Chinese woman with decent English try and translate at first, and I was more than willing to let her to the greetings, but as the gloves came off and phrases like "meta cognitive development" and "sophisticated curriculum design" began to pop up I started taking over the translating. It ended with me being full time translator, and me being involved with every event so far this week. They've been cancelling classes, moving classes, doing whatever they need to in order to have me present. It's been pretty fun. I've also noted that my Chinese has gotten even better than it was before, and the fact that even the foreign professors are impressed reflects how good it must appear to be even to people who don't speak the language.

The culmination of the translator gig was today when the two professors gave lectures. I was, needless to say, a bit nervous to translate a one hour lecture given by two professors with Ph.D's into Chinese for an audience of 70 people. The whole ordeal was, unbeknownst to me, caught on tape as well as documented in pictures, so I'll be sure to get a hold of that media.

An interesting side note, there was a big flu outbreak in one of my classes overnight. There were 26 kids in class E yesterday, and today only 6 showed up. A seventh came late, then left an hour later with flu symptoms. As a result, they are doing a big disinfecting of the classroom and all the kids in the class have been given the week off, leaving me with only two classes to teach for the next week. We'll see what creative ideas they come up with for this newfound free time to keep me busy. Now that the heads of the other 5 branches now what a great translator they have on staff, they are all considering treating more and more foreign guests to come give lectures on education. What have I gotten myself into.

It Smells Like Fall

It's a great day outside today. Just enough wind blowing to throw red and orange leaves around, and there is that distinct smell in the air that winter is almost here. I am really craving some chili right now.

Today we had two teachers from a school in Canada come to visit, and my job was to play tour guide and interpreter. Apparently our kindergarten has a sister school in Canada, and every February we do a teacher exchange. It gives our teachers a chance to see other methods, and it gives the Canadian kindergarten (which is also sponsored by a college) a chance to send Graduate students and PhD candidates over to do research and help out our curriculum. It's a pretty good feeling when even the white people are blown away by how good my Chinese is. They are really excited knowing now that I will be here in February, and I am too since they want to include me in helping their research projects. I get to pretend I'm a graduate student for 2 weeks when they come at the end of February/March.

In addition to that, I've started spending a lot of time previewing restaurants and locations around me. I've been getting prices on hotels, parks, and setting up daily itineraries for when the five-some comes to visit for Christmas. Pretty excited. If anyone wants to try and stow away in their suitcase they are certainly welcomed.

That's my short update for today.