thegarrettblog

Extreme Pilgrim

This is a fascinating video of an English Anglican Priest who goes to the desert in Egypt to live like St. Anthony for 3 weeks.  It is about an hour long, but it is very compelling.  What are you thoughts?

Naomi's Baptism

We were so blessed yesterday to witness Naomi and her mother's baptism. It was an amazing day at the beach!

Funny excuse note

This is an actual note given to me in class by a friend of this student. I thought it was funny, although I'm sure the student meant no humor in it. ;)

Counting to 32

So later today (well after the grey hair incident) Annabelle was riding with me on the scooter to the store. She is so cute when she's riding with me - she talks NONSTOP.

I guess the idea of "growing older" was still on her mind. She talked a lot about turning three (a favorite subject of hers.) Somehow my age came up and I told her I would be 32 on my next birthday. She said "TWO?! Like me???"

I said, "No honey, I will be THIRTY TWO! You can't even count that high."

Always stubborn and wanting to prove me wrong she began counting...

"One... two... three... thirty-two. See momma, I CAN count to thirty-two!" 

Traumatic Grey Hair

Today there was major trauma at the Garrett household over a grey hair. This is what happened. This morning I (Chana) noticed that my grey hair had grown much longer. (Okay, I'm sure I've got more than one - but I have one in particular that stands out and is growing in front so I see it a lot.) I came into the office where Josh and Annabelle were and I showed it to them. I said, "Well, I'm starting to get old." It was at this statement that Annabelle LOST it! She started crying and screaming that she didn't want me to get old. She said she wanted me to stay exactly the same as I am now. I explained to her that everyone gets old and that even she would be getting older. Well... at this she decided it was okay for daddy and Ava Raye to get older, but she and I would not! Then she demanded to look at my grey hair. When she found it, she started crying in hysterics again! Poor thing... she really took it hard! I guess this is a good reminder to myself to be sure and always speak about growing older in positive terms!! :)

The Essentials

The idea for this post was taken from my-good-friend-living-in-the-Philippine's blog. 

Absolute Essentials for an American woman's purse:

• Car Keys
• Large Wallet
• Brush
• Compact Mirror
• Lip Gloss
• Cell Phone
•   
• Absolute Essentials for a Chinese woman's purse: 
• 
  
  • Keys to her bicycle or moped
  • Tissue for the squatty potties
  • Plastic bottle for drinking green/herbal tea
  • Umbrella - for the sunshine
  • Whitening cream
  • Cell Phone
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Some interesting things about our University...

I've been thinking recently how different the university that we work for here in China is so different from American Universities. This is the short list of things I've found.... interesting.

1. There are uniformed "class monitors" that check every classroom at the start of every class to make sure that the teacher is there and is holding class. (I was late due to bad weather in one of my classes and the monitor 'told on me.' It was no big deal since I had already told my boss AND my class to wait for me... but still... doesn't that seem strange?)

2. There is one restaurant on campus called the "Western Cafe." I guess it has this name because alongside the fried rice and Chinese pork dishes they serve "Pizza" and "Macaroni Noodles Covered in Ketchup." Hmmmmmmm....

3. There is NO student parking (for cars.) And as I reflected on that today I realized that I have never met a student at the University that owns a car! 

4. As a teacher, we are given NO SYLLABUS,  NO CLASS OBJECTIVES, and NO TEXTBOOK. Basically we are told "You are teaching writing" or "You are teaching Public Speaking" and we have to create what that means ourselves.

5. There are signs posted all over campus that say, in Chinese of course, "Beware of Poisonous Snakes."

6. Students actually attend classes - most of the time! It is not unusual for me to have a class of 30 kids show up every week on time. When they do miss class, it is usually for some kind of competition - academic or athletic. They are BIG on competitions here!

7. Whole classes stay together. What I mean is - as a Freshman, their schedule is determined by the University. They are in a class with 30 others. And, as a class, they all take writing together, all take public speaking together, all take Listening together.... etc. They are always with the rest of their class. Not until they become a Junior or Senior do they realize they can change their assigned schedule.

And... last but not least...

8. EVERYONE in all my classes have black hair and black eyes. I guess that doesn't really count for "strange" in China... but certainly different than in the USA!