Winter Camp Resort

Hey everyone, I'm running a little behind! I'm actually back in the States right now, but I'm going to post about the winter camp my school did for some students on Jan 15-17.

This was kind of sprung on the teachers, and immediately followed our week of "make up classes" for students who missed class during the semester (there's a whole blog post to be written about my opinions on how the administration runs the school....but I'm trying to stay positive, haha). There were probably just under 30 students who went, so the admin staff only pulled three teachers to go: the Latin/ballroom teacher, the street dance teacher, and me.

Most of our students were from the ballet classes, but there were a handful of Latin and street dancers. None.....were mine.... But hey, we can say it was an opportunity for me to introduce my style to them, right?

My classes were scheduled out on the front lawn of the hotel, overlooking the ocean, as is in keeping with the authentic Duncan tradition. The only problem is that it was a little chilly and damp, but luckily it never actually rained while I was teaching.

Oh, I mentioned the hotel - the camp took place in Huizhou, near the beach, and a good three-hour bus ride away from Shenzhen. The first day, we left from the school around 8:30am, and arrived around 12:30 after a lunch break. My first class was at 2pm that day, so I was expecting the students to be exhausted and unfocused, but they were actually quite good!

Let me explain about this hotel.....

It was EXTREMELY fancy

My teaching field is just off to the left - you can't quite see it in this picture

Really, this camp was more of an excuse for the teachers and staff to go to a fancy hotel. We only had to teach five classes each, and three of them were joint classes - one dance vocabulary class, one movie class, and one "body training" on the last day.
Body training is an extremely vague term translated from Chinese, and the parents apparently request it from the staff, who cannot for the life of them provide the foreign teachers with a concrete definition. What we ended up doing was a warm up (Latin), strength training (street dance) and stretching to finish (me). My boss watched and kept making worried noises that we were pushing the kids too hard and that they wouldn't have fun memories, and I told her frankly that if she wanted them to play games and have fun, then she should have scheduled that. She also shouldn't have scheduled hour and a half classes for the six and seven year olds, but she didn't ask me for my input when she made the schedule, alas.

Anyway, it basically went off without a hitch. The school hired some professional camp leaders (tour guides?) to monitor the kids and get them to their various activities, so the teachers didn't have to do anything besides teach and eat the free food. 👍

Check the rooms:

The hotel is clearly meant for summer, as everything is designed to be dark and cool

The beds were SO SOFT compared to the mattresses I've had in my apartments :')

I haven't been able to find a rating online, but I'd be willing to bet this was a five star. Maybe four, but it would be a close one.

The sinks were so aesthetic!!!!!

The hot tub on the balcony overlooking the pool and ocean.......

I never actually used the hot tub, haha. Instead, on the last night I went with the two other teachers to the hot springs, which were HEAVENLY despite the fact that there was a stiff, cold breeze. I was an absolute puddle of mush when I got back to my room. 😊

Other than that, in my time off I mostly just slept or wandered around the hotel taking photos. I was a tired child that week, man. We didn't really do any bonding activities with the kids besides eating meals together, but I did spend some time with the one of the bolder students with good English.

Anyway, I think I'll just drop all these extra photos here for your enjoyment.

Mountains on the far side of the hotel

View of the entrance

Near the elevators

Entry hall (!!!!)

It's hard to see the ocean with the weather so gray, but I promise that's a gorgeous beach view.

Decor - I really likes the leaf fan

Lobby couch pod decor

This stupid table made me so happy and I don't know why

And some food:

This guy spurred discussion about the etiquette of eating fish within Chinese families, but also saw into the depths of our souls

BARNACLES

So yeah, that was a neat trip! I didn't end up going to the beach at all (WHOOPS haha) because it was so cold, but I had a nice time anyway.

To close, here's the view of the mountains around the bay as we drove off.

Stay warm <3

Pollution 😷😷😷

For whatever reason, I had a hard time falling asleep last night and waking up this morning. Not wanting to drag myself out of bed for my usual morning run, I decided to check pollution levels in Shenzhen - the sky yesterday had been a little hazy, and my skin was a little itchy. Well, what did my wondering eyes discover but a 158 "Unhealthy" rating!

So I cancelled my run, still feeling a little guilty, as I am healthy as an ox and I was thinking maybe I wouldn't have suffered any ill effects...

However, on my way to work later in the day, I noticed a definite difference in the smell of the air. Throughout work my throat tickled, and I heard children coughing as I walked past them on the streets. My eyes got itchy after walking outside, and going inside the (uninsulated) dance school did practically nothing to help. I checked the pollution again, and it hit a high of 168, yikes.

I suppose I was happy to have been right in calling off the run, but at what cost? 😑

On the way home from work I stopped by Walmart to buy a filtering face mask, and it turned out that they carried a PM2.5 grade one - which is the specific irritant that was high today. Honestly I don't know how effective the mask is, but I felt better having it.

And as I got home, the level of pollution had finally dropped from "unhealthy" to "unhealthy (for sensitive individuals)." Plus, it looks like tomorrow's gonna be another beautiful day 🙃

Peace and clean air to you all, my friends. Peace and clean air.

Word Trouble

One of the hardest things for me in my college Chinese classes (after memorizing food words, which I just didn't bother to do because I figured it was the least important for me to know as far as communication went) (you can imagine how that's come back to bite me) was sorting out time words.

The trick to one set of them is remembering that ancient Chinese was written and read from the top of the page to the bottom: the word for "next/after" (as in "next week") is the same as the word for "under" (下) and "before/last" and "above" are the same (上).

However, there's problem, because those before/after time words are not the same as standing in front of or behind someone. The word for standing behind someone "后" can also mean a time after the present. Used in a sentence, I would often translate "后" as "moving forward/in the future," but it also means "behind."
Conversely, the word for standing in front of someone "前" means a time before the present. So for me, I have a lot of trouble remembering that "前" means "before" in the sense of going first (as in "I stand before you"), but also means "in past time."

Considering the previous 下/上 meanings, it would seem that "前" should mean behind, if you're thinking about how words appear on a page. The word you already read is behind where you're currently reading, not in front. But these two sets of time words don't operate on the same principles! The trick with 前/后 is to think of them in motion. Take cars leaving a parking lot: a car that has left before you is in front, and a care has not yet left is behind you.

I was thinking about this because my youngest students are between the ages of three and four, so most of them have not studied English in school. I have to rely on my Chinese to get them to follow instructions, and when I'm struggling to think quickly about where I need them to stand, of course they get confused. I'm getting better at it!

However, I just finished my last regular day of teaching (everything after this is make up classes), so we'll see if I retain my progress after the lunar new year passes haha. Speaking of the new year, I'm heading back to the States soon! I'm leaving from Hong Kong on January 18th and returning to China on February 10th. I'm super excited for the possibility of snow and real cold weather!!!!

Here's a picture of the new company sign in the Donghai mall featuring my newly-added photo~

My poor co-worker had a devil of a time trying to put this up due to some miscommunication about where the display was supposed to go!

I'm right next to the street dance teacher and the juxtaposition makes me smile :)

Peace <3

✨Happy New Year!✨

I hope you're safe, well-fed, and surrounded by loved ones at the start of the new year!

I spent the evening with some co-workers. Since we're all dance teachers, it was really fun! There was a lot of dancing, and interestingly, Spanish was the dominant language of the night (three co-workers are Cuban, one is Spanish, and one is Italian who speaks Spanish, haha. We were at my Spanish co-workers apartment, so her aunt, her brother, and his girlfriend were all there). There was a lot of salsa and flamenco, and it really dazzled my heart to watch these forms of dance that were as natural to them as breathing. I've been reflecting, since then, on the theatrical nature of my dance styles, and how they're not necessarily meant for celebrations or community building. Of course, a dance class is its own kind of community, but I was considering the differences between learning dance like you learn your native language versus studying something in school.

ANYWAY, it was a lovely evening, and I had fun! I was the first one to leave since I am, fundamentally, still a homebody haha. I was gifted an especially chatty cab driver on the way back, so I struggled through small talk in Chinese at 2am. He didn't seem offended when I had to continually ask him to repeat himself, so I'll count that as a success (he had an extremely strong southern accent lol).

Today I let myself sleep in for the first time in a long time, and I'm gonna spend the day taking care of small chores, watching shows online, and eating the chocolate I bought myself as a holiday treat!

The view from my co-workers apartment!

The view OF my co-workers apartment!