i was the question master. what.

I decided that the fact that the internet isn’t working isn’t a valid reason for not writing in my blog. So, this is what I wrote on Microsoft word last night after eating chao mien in my bed and watching the Borat movie, which cost me less than a dollar.

Things here have been pretty interesting since I last updated. My weekend was moderately uneventful. And by moderately uneventful, I mean really nice. Shannon’s parents took Dania and me out for dinner on Friday night, and Saturday I went out to brunch with Jonathan and Dania and went shopping. My goal was to buy Christmas presents…and I ended up buying presents…for myself. I got this awesome hat that I’m going to start wearing because I happen to think I am a hat person. I also bought this beautiful fake prada bag, and a fake north face jacket. The fake North Face was about $25. Awesome.

I spent the rest of my weekend working on my law school applications (8 of 10 are submitted!! Woohoo!!) and talking to Mike via my webcam. So far I have applied to Michigan, Chicago-Kent, University of Southern California, UCLA, University of Texas at Austin, Georgetown, George Washington, and American University. The other two are George Mason and Northwestern. And seriously, webcams are so awesome cause it makes you feel so much more connected than just using the phone. It’s too bad that the best times to talk to me I’m always wearing my pajamas. Although judging from the fact that apparently pajamas (not just pajama pants, FULL pajama outfits) are appropriate for everyday outside wear in China, talking to me while I’m wearing my flannel pajamas should be no big deal.

The most interesting thing to happen this week was by far an English speaking competition at East China University of Science and Technology. That’s the same university that invited me to give my speech on a cappella. They invited me back to be a judge at their English speaking competition on Tuesday night, and I accepted. Actually, it turned out that when I was picked up by Professor Yan, she told me that I was going to be the "question master," which meant that I was going to have to listen to their speeches one by one and come up with some random question that I wanted to ask them based on their speech for the question and answer part. Well, I certainly didn’t expect that and had no idea what I was doing, so I got a little nervous. Yan also told me that I was going to have to give some comments at the end of the competition, while they were compiling the final scores.

So, we got to the room (the same one that I gave my speech in) and I got to listen to the two hosts practice their lines. Then, still nervous, I went up to the circle that the 5 judges were standing in, speaking in Chinese. Professor Yan was there, as was another teacher that I had met when I was there before. So I asked them if they could give me examples of certain types of questions to ask, and one by one they all said something to me in beautiful, flawless English. I don’t know why I was so surprised; they are English professors at a university known for its English department. And yet, I was surprised. To that point, I had only heard them speak in Chinese. They were all really nice and helpful. It sort of made me miss college.

So, we sat down in our seats, and luckily I was sitting next to Professor Yan. There were a total of 16 contestants who all had to give a prepared speech (3 minutes), speak impromptu on a given topic for 2 minutes, and then answer whatever question I threw at them. The topic for the prepared speech was something along the lines of “usage of proper honor and shame in civilized societies.” How Chinese.

The competition went well, and I felt like I was getting an interesting peek into Chinese culture by watching these speeches made by university students. Many of them talked about a book that I hadn’t heard of (but have a feeling I should have? Maybe I’m just ignorant) called the Eight honors and eight….something else. One of the students talked about how simply promoting patriotism would cure all the problems regarding people not using proper honor or shame. Another talked about strong socialist ideals. Professor Yan, when introducing me to one of the other professors, made a point to tell me that he was the party secretary representative something for the school. People might talk about China not being a "communist" country because of the free market economy, but when I was sitting in that room, listening to university students quote the president of China over and over and discuss the Beijing Olympics, it definitely did not feel like America. And…as for my questions, I had to ask Yan almost every time if my question was ok, and if she thought it wasn’t, she’d come up with a better one for me.

The contestants were ok (some better than others). There were actually a couple of people that seemed to have very strong American accents and very lovely voices. The only problem was that I couldn’t understand a single word they were saying…and they were speaking in English! When I was asked to give comments at the end, I mentioned that, as well as my own little tricks for public speaking (the more nervous you are, the bigger your smile should be).

And, what do you know. It’s 9:15, I’m laying in bed, and could easily fall asleep right now.


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Um, that's exactly what i did. I fell asleep at 9:15 and woke up at 11 and the internet still wasn't working.

But, now that i think about it, yesterday was cute and sort of fun too. In my music class, I decided to spend the month of december singing Christmas carols. Yesterday was the culmination-- we went caroling to various classrooms and offices in the Primary school building. The kids loved it-- they were so excited to go sing for the other students, even though the other students were mostly confused. "Teacha, why they sing for us?"

We came up to my office and sang for the teachers that were sitting in here, and Ge Ding recorded it on his digital camera. So, now i have it on my computer-- my music class singing "We Three Kings" off key. I wish I could email it but the file is a minute and a half long.

I posted pictures on my kodakgallery site from Mike's visit. www.kodakgallery.com login stephanie.fajuri@gmail.com and password is stephanie. Enjoy!