By: Elizabeth Zhang
This week was both our first full week and our last full week of teaching. Next week we only teach until Tuesday because the school needs everyone to leave in order to prepare for 9th graders to take the 中考(zhong kao), a high school placement exam. That means we only have 2 more hours next week plus a week of rehearsals before the final performance!! Time flies by so quickly and seeing each class once a week for 40 minutes feels too short. I feel like I’ve just begun to finally get to know them more and now the classes are over :(
As for the extracurricular classes, this has definitely been one of the more stressful weeks, but not without progress and improvement. Before arriving in Zhuhai, we have always been told to be ready to be flexible because things always change. And that’s exactly what has been happening this week. Some classes had to shorten dances, combine dances, alter scripts, etc., which is pretty last minute because we need to finalize things as son as possible.
Wes and I have been working on gathering information to put together a document with each act’s name, number of people in each performance, costume/props needed, lights, and other equipment needed. A lot of times I feel like communication between the Duke students and the No. 9 middle school staff in charge of the final showcase is not always clear and sometimes last minute, but that is something we will definitely try to work on.
Many people have different opinions about the decisions the school had to make, but everything done has a logical reason and ultimately we are here to serve the community. The Duke students, the No. 9 students, and the school staff all want the show to be a success, and I believe it will be.
This week a lot of my film groups have started rapping up filming and have started editing their short films. One group needed me to act in their film for a basketball scene, so we headed down towards the basketball court. As we walked past the cafeteria towards the basketball court, I saw Kristie and her forty something k-pop students dancing. When I watched a group of girls practice by themselves, I was honestly shook. They were so good, and each and every one of them looked like they really enjoyed it. There were 4 groups, and each group was practicing a different dance by themselves while Kristie rotated to each group. I was impressed by the students’ motivation and amazed by how organized the groups were especially when communication is probably difficult between the No. 9 students and the Duke student.
In every class, both the Duke students and No. 9 students have put in so much effort, and I’m honestly so excited to see the final performance!!
This week we also talked about privilege during our group reflection time, which led me to think about my own privileges here in Zhuhai. As an ABC (American Born Chinese), I understood the language, so I had the ability to communicate more clearly with the students. I am able to walk around without people staring at me and calling me “外国人” (foreigner), and I understand some of the Chinese customs (I am not saying I’m an expert). At first I was a little worried I would be upset for not getting treated the same way as the other Duke students, but now I’ve accepted it and have realized how I can be more useful and help out others. Not only can I help with translating or ordering boba or food, I feel like because I kind of understand the culture, I can accept some of the ideas and opinions people in China have and hopefully be able to help with communication (especially with the final showcase planning). I think sometimes we judge too quickly and forget that everyone is trying to work towards the same goal. There are many moving parts to this program and everyone is putting in a lot of work and effort to make things run smoothly. Different people just have different ways achieve the end goal, and we need to respect all decisions!!
This weekend my host mom took me to a popular street to get a “midnight snack” (夜宵, ye xiao). It’s really popular to get “midnight snacks” here because the weather is so hot, so most people stay up late and go out at night instead of the morning/early afternoon because the weather is cooler. My host mom isn’t from Zhuhai, so when she first moved to Zhuhai, she thought it was strange how people woke up around 10:00-11:00 am and stayed up a lot later. Because Arthur and his dad were away at a soccer tournament and Didi (the younger brother) was with his grandparents, my host mom decided to take me to her favorite place to get “midnight snacks”.
There are certain streets dedicated to getting “midnight snacks”, filled with restaurants and bars, crowded with people. The streets start to get busy around 10:00 pm and stay busy until almost 4:00 am. Most restaurants have outside seating, with tables and chairs everywhere, leaving only a tiny sliver of the sidewalk for people to walk on. Because it’s so humid, most people don’t sit inside the restaurant. I followed my host mom to a famous stinky tofu place which was deemed the best in Zhuhai. Apparently the stinky tofu restaurant is known to have a line at all times of the day. At first I doubted it, but after we ordered our food, people just kept on coming to order. The line just never stopped, but I understood why. The tofu was one of the best I’ve ever had!!! 10/10, was not stinky at all, but a bit spicy.
This week tragedy struck. Professor Ku hurt her ankle on the way to our team lunch and had to go to the hospital to get it checked out. Thankfully it is not a severe injury, and the doctor says she just needs rest. Even though she has been staying at home to recover, she is constantly checking up on us, planning our events with the school, planning every detail of our group excursion, and making sure everything is going smoothly, and this I am beyond grateful. I am also extremely grateful for Yanan, especially when she has to deal with twelve of us by herself (I’m sorry if we complain too much sometimes 😅). Thank you for always translating things for us when we go to new places and helping us get the most out of our experiences and excursions. WE LOVE AND APPRECIATE BOTH OF Y’ALL SO MUCH!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Now that the fourth week is over, we are officially halfway done with this program, which is CRAZY. The end is coming sooner than I expected :( but as always, I’m excited to see what new things next week brings...