OMG

which stands for "oh my goodness" in case any of my church family is reading this. But I admit, I did use stronger language than that when I found out tonight that my VPN was not working, and I couldn't access this site to blog (or most of the sites I read). The NAEA is updating their Internet linkage, so we haven't had access at the hotel since yesterday morning. But sometime before it was out Windows downloaded a "critical update" to my computer which screwed up my VPN. It took me an hour and a half tonight to figure out what was going on (after several 'system restore' attempts). Finally, after trying to search on Google's Hong Kong website-the only one I could access - for my VPN provider, an ad appeared in the sidebar for "bestVPNforAsia." I clicked on it, paid through PayPal, downloaded and installed it, and here I am, for only $13.95 a month. I can hardly believe China's firewall didn't block it. It makes me thankful we have uncensored access in the USA.
Another reason I am up late blogging is that after I got access, I uploaded 214 pictures to Picassa and captioned them -Tienanmen Square, and the school we visited today. So, I am back to blogging, 2 days worth.
Thursday in Beijing, June 3:
We had another lecture and discussion in the morning with a sociologist from Beijing Normal University, Dr. Zhao Mengying. He talked about China's movement toward modernity - a new lifestyle based on industrialization. In 1840 the Opium Wars were the beginning of changes in China. As China's culture suffered under foreign pressures, the Chinese begin to emphasize socialism to protect their way of life. The Sino-Japanese war increased patriotism and feelings of nationalism in the Chinese people. Then in 1949 the Revolution occurred, and a new way of life began in earnest. Dr. Zhao talked about the differences in rural and urban areas, how the government struggles to deal with the differences, and the changing relationship between the two.
I was mostly interested in the migration of rural people to the cities, and the hukou system that restricts movement. In China the government owns all the land. If you live in a rural area you get an allotment to work, and that provides for your economic security. Theoretically, if you move to the city you must give up your land, because city people get a type of social security to provide for their needs. However, in practice, it restricts the movement of people from rural areas to the city so that the cities will not become overcrowded and filled with slums, like Rio or Calcutta. Between 1952 and 1980 China's urban population rose from 11 to 19%, while by 1980 the rest of the world 's urban population was 42%. But in reality many people move to the cities, so although it is not "illegal" for them to do so, their children are not entitled to go to school there as they don't have the proper permits. Recently Beijing decided to allow migrant workers' children to attend school, but those migrant schools are not well funded. The government is working on a new system, sort of like our 'green card', so that if you can prove you've been in the city for several years you can get a permit to live there and be legal.
One other thing I found really interesting about the land ownership is that even in the cities the government owns all the land, so when you buy a house you sign 2 contracts - one for the house, and one with the government to rent the land for 70 years. This is relatively new, so no one has any idea what will happen in 70 years when the rental agreement expires.

After lunch we took the bus with blue-tinted windows to Tienanmen Square and the Imperial Palace Museum. What can I say but OMG.
Acres and acres of beautiful buildings, sculptures, carvings, and history. There are really no words to describe it - how vast the palaces are, how ornately decorated. The whole complex is laid out according to Chinese philosophical ideas of Harmony and Balance - heaven/earth, yin/yang, water/fire. It was explained to me today when we visited the school - one of the students told me that the Chinese symbol for middle is: which represents the balance, and the line is the heart. The Emperor's throne is on the heartline, right in the middle of Beijing. The student told me that when you say someone "has his heart in the middle" it means he's a good guy, who wants to do the right thing and have people like him.
The old city walls are gone, torn down by Mao to make way for modernization, but the idea remains.
Tienanmen Square is across from the palace, and it, too, is enormous. Both the palace and the square were filled with Chinese tourists who were enjoying their national treasure. Families, kids, young and old, savoring the late afternoon sunshine and basking in national pride. Our guide told me 1.3 million people filled the square for celebration recently. It was also sobering to remember another anniversary today, June 5 - that of the Tank Man and the protests in 1989.
By the time we arrived back at the hotel we were exhausted. Since we had no Internet access most of us turned in early.
I'm giving up on blogging tonight - it's 1:30 am, and I have to get up early for our trip to the Great Wall. I'll try to write more tomorrow night.
be safe, enjoy the weekend,
rem

Tea

and lots of it. More than I've had in the last 10 years put together, so I am floating away. All day long the serving girls kept filling the teacup with more hot water, so I kept drinking it.
We started with breakfast of noodles, salad, and eggs, along with a few other dishes I couldn't identify. We progressed to the opening ceremony of the Project, in a small room, with a long oval table and no air conditioning. After the Vice President of the National Academy for Education Administration spoke, our fearless leader Dr. Lynne Walters spoke, and then we had our first lecture.
Dr. Zhang Yun presented her ideas and knowledge of Chinese culture. She is a professor of English and Chinese literature at Beijing Foreign Studies University. The lecture was interesting, but then she came and ate lunch with us, and told us a little of her experiences during the Cultural Revolution, from 1966-76. During that time of anti-intellectual purging she and all the teachers at her university were sent south to work on a collective for "re-education," a nice word for punishment. Since her parents were, as she put it, "petite bourgeois," she was suspected of harboring ideas contrary to the state, and so was watched closely. She had to throw all her books on the fire, and work hard to prove herself a good communist. That's about all she would say about it, so it must have been a very unpleasant experience for many people.
She did show us some acupressure massage points, to relieve stress and ensure good health and longevity. Since she's over 70 and doesn't look it, I listened and tried to learn.

Lunch was delicious assortment of dishes, plus fresh fruit. And then we had a 2 hour break, during which I tried to nap, but unfortunately I was unsuccessful.
This afternoon we had 2 more lectures, about teaching geography and history in Chinese schools. It sounds a lot like our education, but with much more central control. There are few textbooks to select from, and national standards that have to be covered, as they are on the test that students take to get into college.
Prior to 2001 schools in China operated on a system similar to Russia's, but at that time reforms were implemented and now the system has been "Americanized." Instead of memorizing a laundry list of facts, teachers and students are being encouraged to discuss and think about ideas. This change has been difficult to implement, and reforms are ongoing. Our group asked many questions of the Chinese lecturers, and we had productive discussions about policy and standards. In light of the Texas SBOE recent adoption of new Social Studies standards, which includes "laundry lists" of dates and people, we seem to be moving backwards while China is moving forward.
Because the lectures this afternoon were delayed due to the late arrival of one lecturer, we did not have a break before our evening meal. This was presented in a banquet room, with Chinese red wine, and 15 or 20 different dishes, most served one at a time. We had 6 or 7 dishes on the rotating lazy susan as appetizers, then shrimp with pineapple and mango, very spicy tofu, mushroom tea, 2 kinds of rice, fish, pot stickers, a dumpling with some sort of greens, chicken soup, dishes I can't recall, and finally fresh fruit. I am still stuffed.
When it was finally over, 2 hours after we started, several of us walked around the outside of the NAEA complex back to the hotel entrance. In the lobby a man was doing calligraphy for a group of Chinese educators.

The artist was packing up as we entered, and a couple of my colleagues said he was with the calligraphy center, which was down the hall. They had gone there last night, so we went to see the center, and ended up staying an hour while they made and poured at least 4 different types of tea for us.






The artist was not there, but several of the people who worked at the center entertained us. One of our group, Bethany, speaks Chinese, so she interpreted for us.

After so much tea I am not sure if I can sleep, but I'm going to try. Tomorrow we have lectures in the morning and then we really are going to Tienanmen Square.

Jet Lag

It's 2:30 in the morning in Beijing, and I am wide awake, so I might as well be productive. Besides, all but 1 channel on the TV are in Chinese. The pic is the view from our hotel on the grounds of the National Academy of Education Administration, our sponsoring group. It's out near the 5th ring road, so we are 10km from the city center.
The flight in was pretty uneventful, if extraordinarily long. Over 24 hours from the time I got to the airport in Houston until we arrived at the hotel here. We flew to Newark, changed planes, then headed over the pole to Beijing. Both planes were completely full, and I didn't have a window seat, so no pics of the Houston-Newark trip. On the Continental flight to Beijing I didn't have a window seat, either, but I was in the first row of the third section, so had extra leg-room since I faced the bathroom wall. Plus, the emergency exits on either side of us had windows, so I got lots of pictures of Greenland and Russia. I wasn't able to sleep much - lots of traffic in front of me, people walking the aisles, using the lavatory, babies crying, but I did miss the North Pole while I was sleeping.
After clearing customs we road a short train through the airport, exited, and our hosts met us at the exit. The airport wasn't nearly as crowded as I expected. The road to the hotel was not crowded, either. They told us that at rush hour it would be packed. I did see lots of construction, and whole blocks of apparently old buildings that had been bulldozed. Also, there were thousands of trees that had been planted along the highway, I guess to block the view during the 2008 Olympics.
The hotel is nice, we each have our own room. Supper was a buffet with various dishes, most of which I was not familiar with. Spicy cabbage, pot-stickers, some sort of mashed potatoes, and 20 other things. I will definitely be losing weight while I'm here.
Enjoy the pics, and wish me luck staying awake during the lecture tomorrow morning. In the afternoon we go to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. I am looking forward to that. Maybe tonight's rain will have cleared the pollution out of the air. It's terrible, my nose is stopped up with dust, and my eyes are burning. We will be in Beijing 10 days - I hope its not this bad the whole time.
be safe, see you soon,
rem

My Big Trip

Everything is done - I'm packed, the house is (relatively) clean, the bills are paid, and I have some spending money in my pocket. By this time tomorrow I'll be almost halfway to China!
Although I am not looking forward to a 20 hr trip, I am sure the end result will be worth it. I can hardly wait to see the place, smell it, touch it, feel it, hear it, taste it. So new to my senses, and I'm sure overwhelming at first. But I have a whole month to take in all I can, and I plan on bringing back lots of pictures, stories, and memories.
We will be going to 6 cities, all marked on the map except Lijiang, near Kunming. Lots of traveling, including a train trip down the Yangtze Valley from Nanjing to Shanghai.
I won't be able to post again 'til I'm in Beijing, so have a great Memorial Day, remember our servicemen and servicewomen, and be safe.
rem

A New Trojan Horse

The Real Thing

Back to School

Hi-ho, hi-ho, its off to school we go.....

Monday marks the start of school for millions of Texas students. Ours are particularly lucky - we now have a district-wide curriculum, purchased at some exorbitant price with taxpayer dollars. The new Deputy Superintendent for Curriculum decided that the teachers in the district couldn't be trusted to know the TEKS and the best ways to teach them, so she bought pre-packaged curriculum for the entire district. The geography curriculum is horrible, it does not cover the TEKS in a way that will prepare students to take the new End-of-Course exam. Our school has been selected to participate in the "field test" next May. Although we will never get the scores, it would be nice to think our students will pass it. With C-SCOPE, the high-dollar curriculum, many won't. I have been in contact with a person on the EOC test review committee, and although the person can't say much, they did say C-SCOPE won't get the job done. The TEKS on physical/population/culture/urbanization are not covered in-depth in the new curriculum. I am hoping I can talk to the C&I folks and they will pay attention, but probably not. Dr. P has already made it clear she knows more than the teachers, who know nothing at all. We are all too Dopey.

El Salvador

I'm Campaigning

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Geography Camp

Another year has passed and its time once again for the famous Summer Academy for Minority Scholars at Texas State University in San Marcos. So far we have been to the Institute for Texan Culture in San Antonio, taken a tour of 4 different religious sites in Austin, and participated in a necrogeography tour of the San Marcos area, visiting 3 old cemeteries. One of the burial grounds was that of slaves from the Kyle area; most of those graves were unmarked, but clearly distinguishable by sunken places in the ground.
The 30 students and their teachers are preparing PowerPoints about the many different cultural groups that settled Texas, including the Wends, Irish, Czechs, Vietnamese, and my group, the Lebanese.
Tomorrow morning we'll do our presentations and depart for home. Some groups have as far to drive as Los Fresnos, and another is from Buda, 20 minutes away. All of us plan on returning next year.

Barsana Dham, Driftwood


Uhland Cemetery


Log cabin, Institute for Texan Culture


Synagogue, Austin