Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving. To celebrate I went to McDonalds.

In the last three months, all I've eaten has been Chinese food, barring the Oreos I get on a near weekly basis. I ordered a spicy chicken sandwich, with a Coke and fries. It was okay. I would have much rather had a burrito.

It was only a few days ago that I realized the Thanksgiving was coming up. It reminds of when Halloween came. No decorations commemorating the approaching holiday, no TV commercials advertising any special-themed sales, just a dearth of any holiday spirit in the air.

I realize like Halloween, it will be the first time I celebrate the Thanksgiving outside of the America. Though it feels more like I won't be celebrating it all (although in college I never went back home during the Thanksgiving breaks). I think other than a Subway sandwich, there's no other place in China that sells turkey.

A few students, however, have sent me "Happy Thanksgiving" text messages; while another foreign teacher wished me a happy holiday. That was nice. In retrospect, I really should have planned something today.

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It's strange, and I feel bad for thinking it. But it's much easier to teach a class when so many of your students are skipping it.

The classes shrink and become so more manageable. I can talk to every student, and talk to them more than once. But then again, there's a group of students, the students who don't come, whom I'll never speak to, let alone see. A terrible irony.

This week, attendance has been low in some of my classes. So low that for a moment, one class only had one student. Nine students later trickled in a few minutes later. But still, my self-esteem as a teacher, sunk below the ground when I saw the vacuum in classroom seats.

The reason for the absences: an upcoming test in another class. Many of the students have decided to opt-out of my lesson and study instead. I understand, not like I didn't skip a few classes in college when something big was up. Still, I'm the teacher now, and sympathy can only go so far. Three students, however, did send me text messages saying how sorry they were they didn't come to class. No big deal I replied. It happens.