To be or not to be...

I walked into Molly's Senior 1 Advance English classroom as a special guest. I smiled as I saw some of the faces of students that I myself teach for regular Senior 1 Writing class. On their desks was chocolate cake, that the students were quickly finishing eating. They have been studying Shakespeare for a couple of weeks now, and today they were having a small party in honor of his recent birthday.

I introduced myself not as Mark, but as Hamlet. I did not talk about class or school but instead described the problems that I (Hamlet) had been having. My father had recently died, and my uncle married my mother and became the new king. What is worse, I had recently seen a ghost of my father who informed me that he had been murdered by the current king. How would I solve my problems? Who would believe me? Life is so difficult?

After this brief introduction, I broke out into Hamlet's famous soliloquy that starts with the lines "To be or not to be..." After wrapping up the speech, the students gave a boisterous applause. I had a huge grin on my face as I described how and why I had learned this speech.

I told them how this is a speech that I was required to memorize my Senior year of high school, for Mrs. Blake's English class. Molly had given me the idea to come share it with the class, and I agreed to give it a whirl. I had remembered a great portion of the speech from high school, but did have to brush up on a few parts of it.

Looking at this moment, it was a great joy to take something that I had learned when I was their age, and recite it for them to help them get excited about learning. Their faces showed an energy as they listened, even to words that were beyond my vocabulary (and how much more so theirs). But yet it was a fun opportunity that made me smile as a teacher. I am sure that if Mrs. Blake heard this story, she too would smile.

A day in the Mud

I love living on campus. It is beautiful, full of open space, and of course, it has basketball courts right outside my house (ha!). In addition to this, I love meeting the other people who live on campus. My house is located in the back of Concordia's Campus, near the Taiwanese teachers who also live on campus. These people are such a blessing from God. Over this past year, we have had some dinners and many conversations with these people, trying to get to know them better.

A couple of weekends ago, I walked out of my front door to see some of the neighbors hard at work. There was water and mud everywhere. As I peered around the corner to see what they were doing, I felt a little apprehensive about getting muddy myself. Then I saw the project that was being undertaken. Kevin, Debby, Amy,Esther, and Autumn, were out planting sod on open dirt area next to our house. They had sprayed water on the dirt to help in the planting of the grass. Of course the mud had made its way onto the sidewalk.

As I me, Kevin (Foley), and Michelle watched and talked to our neighbors about the project, they jokingly invited us to help. By now my initial hesitancy to get dirty had faded, and I thought it would be kind of fun to help them. So I kicked off my shoes and got dirty. Kevin and Michelle joined me, and there was a huge group of us making the work much easier.

I kind of felt like I was a kid again, playing in the mud. The squishy sensation of the mud sliding in between my toes was kind of weird. As I picked up the grass squares and placed them in their spot, I really was not sure if there was any proper technique for doing this. I guess I have never planted sod before. So if you see a blog in a couple of months commenting on all of the dead grass near my house, I guess we know who to blame, ha!






And in true Taiwanese fashion we were offered food after we worked. Debby gave us a bean soup, dumplings (that her mother had made), and something to drink. The dumplings were outstanding, better than any I had eaten. How Chir (chinese for delicious). What great time getting to know the neighbors, and to help make the campus a little more beautiful. Praise God for these little things in life.

A small triumph

So I want to share a small story of happiness from this past weekend. I had the chance to use my Chinese to order pizza for people that live here on Concordia's campus.

A couple of things, first if you know me, you know that I really like to eat pizza. So anytime opportunity to eat it is good. Second, I have really enjoyed learning Chinese and finding practical ways to use it and practice it. So this was a great accomplishment in several ways.

I must say I was a little nervous, and did not know for sure how it was going to go. I mean, it is one thing to order something at a restaruant where you can point, and getsture. It's a totally different thing to order over the phone. You can only hear the other persons voice. No gestures, no visual help. Also, I was ordering for a whole group of people, so I did want to get the order right.

Prior to ordering I called my friend Mike to get some confirmation on words such as Haiwaiian, Pepperoni, Thick Crust, and a couple of other essential pizza vocab. I picked up the phone, and the first words I said were "DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?"

Uhhhh. Was about all I could hear and then they told me to wait a little bit. A different person got on the phone, and she tried to speak English, but it became evident to me that the conversation would have to be conducted in Chinese.

After this initially exchange, the rest of the phone call went really well. A couple of times I had to say "Wo ting bu dong" (I hear but don't understand), but eventually words were found that could be understood. I hung up, feeling good. I was just hoping know that all of the pizzas and the kinds I wanted would come to Concordia.

And sure enough, about an hour later 3 pepperoni pizzas and 3 Hawaiian pizzas from Domino's were waiting for me at the front gate. I don't know if pizza ever tasted so good. Well, maybe, but it still was a great experience.