dream out loud

It was recently decided by the CDC that the H1N1 vaccination, which is in limited supply, would be made available to graduating students at local and private schools. In our school, it was also made available to local staff and teachers on an optional basis.

We were only informed of this with a few days to decide. I was really on the fence about making this decision. I have never once had the regular flu shot, and have not ever gotten the flu. Not even in the past several years of working in an elementary school. One winter, when I was the most ill I have ever gotten, my doctor said that it was some kind of virus going around that season which the recent flu shot didn’t even include.

I asked around for opinions, which ran the whole gamut. Most people didn’t want disease in their body, several people didn’t want anything Chinese-developed, and other swore that they just never get sick. The doctor here told me that it is safe and she herself had taken it.

In the end, I decided to have it. So one deep breath and in went the needle. I feel fine so far, even though we were asked to be observed for 40 minutes. More importantly, I feel quite lucky to be receiving it, especially when I hear about people waiting in line for hours to get the vaccination.

How did I end up deciding? First off, on Saturday I went into to see my doctor for a bit of the regular cold. She told me the vaccination has been known to be safe so far, and that all the doctors and staff at the clinic have had it. There’s been a lot of talk about social responsibility – getting vaccinated so that you can’t pass the germ on to someone else. Well, I’m not sure how socially responsible I am being if I am taking the vaccination away from someone else who might need it more, since it is in limited supply. But considering the above reasons NOT to – I realized several things. I can still get the germ without exhibiting symptoms, the vaccination was developed by the same people who developed a vaccination for SARS, it is being exported to other countries, and lastly, I am not invincible. No matter how much I want to be.

I was doing so well at the blogging and updates! But now, I’m back in China. This is an intermediary update on why there have been so few updates to the blog, Flickr, or Facebook. The internet has been incredibly slow, far slower than I remember. One night, I started loading a web site, went to take a shower, came back and it was still not complete yet.

Taking the information local-side-streets is only part of the problem. The other reason for my lack of updates is the… how shall we say? Road blocks and dead ends? That’s right, the Great Firewall of China is at work again. While I was in the US, friends and family in China told me about all the sites added to the blocked list. I got a little spoiled with the fast and uncensored wireless access back home. Now I’m frustratingly annoyed with the need for a proxy server. (Which doesn’t always work, anyway.)

A mini-update for now… perhaps I will be able to elaborate on any part of it later.

July 28 Returned to China with parents, met with my aunt and cousin in Shanghai.

July 29 Saw Glen for one day when he got to Shanghai.

July 30 Returned to Suzhou with family. Sightseeing for a few days, including dinner with Ryan and Maggie.

August 2 Began traveling in China with family to Xian, Taiyuan, Pingyao.

August 8 Met Glen in Chengdu. Ate spicy food and saw pandas. Continued on to Leshan, Emei Shan, Chongqing.

August 16 Returned to Suzhou. Flight was delayed so got home at 10:30pm.

August 17 Went back to work! Set up classroom and had meetings all week.

August 22 Went to work to meet families (Saturday morning, mind you.) Went out with friends at night for my birthday.

August 24 Birthday! And first day of school.

Tonight was a Chinese New Year dinner for all of the staff and faculty. It was quite elaborate, except for the part when we showed up and they were not ready for us.

We had heard from returning teachers that at the dinner, there were elaborate prizes given out by raffle drawing. As we approached to board the bus to dinner, Lyndal said to me that she never wins anything, has never won anything in her life. I told her that we made a perfect pair because I never win anything either. We joked that we should definitely sit next to each other to cancel that out and maybe one of us would win something.

At the dinner, we got a great table of people together and were having fun already. The “presentation” was a bit tacky, with some singing and emcee’s and such. They begin to draw names for prizes. Eventually, people at our table are being called, including Lyndal. We hear lots and lots of familiar names and make lots of noise for them.

It slowly becomes apparent to me that just about everyone I know will go home with *something* no matter how big or small but me. I comment on this and laugh. At this point the emcee, who is a teacher named Mark announced that the next drawing is for 2 round-trip tickets to Qingdao. I look at Isaac and joke, “Oh, that has my name written all over it!” Next thing I know… Mark says, “And the winner is…” Isaac jokes, “Elvina Tong!” And no kidding, about a split second later, Mark calls out, “Elvina Tong!”

Isaac and I look at each other and exclaim, “That’s creepy!” I sat frozen for a second and everyone was like, Go!! I got my prize, still not quite believing it. Nice thing to get for a first time win, I must admit.

According to my good friend Wikipedia, a Chinese fire drill is “a pejorative expression usually referring to a prank, or perhaps an expression of high spirits, that was popular in the United States during the 1960s. It is performed when a car is stopped at a red traffic light, at which point all of the car’s occupants get out, run around the car, and return to their own seats.” Therefore, “the expression ‘Chinese Fire Drill’ is the act of a group of individuals accomplishing nothing. The term is also used as a figure of speech to mean any large, ineffective, and chaotic exercise.”

Well, after today, I really can’t be offended by this colloquial expression.

Ever since I’ve been here I’ve been put in situations, circumstances or events that give me a sense of confusion, disbelief, horror, or amusement. I call these my “I live in China” moments. On rare and special occasions, I am fortunate enough to experience all of those reactions at one time. As was the case today!

So the school had told us in advance that we would have a fire drill during which the local Chinese fire department would come, set off smoke bombs, create fake fires, create and extinguish an actual, contained fire. The pièce de résistance would be the simulated rescue of a student. We all wondered who dreamt this up and why it would be a good idea.

A little background. Last week, we had a fire drill without the bells and whistles, perhaps a dry run, if you will. I told my students about it, but a few who don’t speak much English became very worried and tears flowed. I got very distressed about it and wondered how they would take the fake fires. But we were lucky to have this practice practice prepare them for the real fake thing.

So back to today. Our 10am scheduled drill was running late (I later found out that the fire department forgot the impostor incendiary stuff and went back to get it) I had planned for the kids to have a transition just before 10 so it would cause as little disruption as possible. So 10 came and went, without the alarm going off. There I was, reading Shel Silverstein’s Runny Babbit to kill time. I finally had to give up and have them to do some independent work – and the alarm finally sounded at 10:30.

By the time we got to the first floor, I already smell smoke and the kids are covering their noses. Outside, we see this orange smoke/flame action going on. My kids are so distracted by this sight that they are amused and laughing. We find our Grade 2 post to sit down at and watch the firefighters run inside the building, put out the smoky thing. Then just a few feet from us, they start a fire inside this giant metal bowls, then put them out with a fire extinguisher. However, they didn’t use them correctly. Another thing I later found out was that closer to the field, someone dropped a fire extinguisher, causing it to explode.

Accompanying this spectacle were photographers and videographers. I am so disappointed that I didn’t capture this with my camera and hope to have an opportunity to do so. Because you probably don’t believe any of this.