Friday, December 17, 2010

Sex. Education lessons

I started the sex. ed. unit this week and I will continue teaching it next week. 10 days of sex. ed. The boys have been looking forward to it all semester! However, they were not very interested about the sex. organs of a female. They only wanted to know where the penis goes or some of them already knew all about it... I did not want to hear any of their personal stories. They were more excited when I taught them about their sex. organs, erections and masturbation. Maybe they were embarrassed that I was teaching them sex. ed. I use a lot of humour and they love it!

On Thurs. it was the BIG Day! As you know from the previous post, I bought condoms for each of my students and bananas. By the middle of the day, I started running out of condoms. I think some of my students took some of them with them or other students from other classes took one.... I gave the boys a hand out about how to put on a condom and we discussed about it. One of the students jokingly said, after using the condom, wash it and hang it to dry and another student said keep it as a souvenir. I had to tell them not to use it again and I tried showing them it is hard to put it back on and their semen might still be on it. These are the kind of boys I teach... We all laughed about it. I also told them it's not too expensive to buy more. I taught the boys how to correctly open a package of condom and check the expiry date. Then I showed them how to put it on a banana (penis). They were shocked about the size... In all 4 of my classes, when I finished showing them how to correctly put it on either clapped or said that I was a pro. You might even see a video or a picture of me showing them how to put it on correctly...

It was their turn. The lubricant on the condom that I bought smelt odd and it got all over the place. Some of the boys started taking out tissue to hold the end of their bananas and showed their classmates they did it correctly. I allowed the kids to explore a bit. A student tried wrapping it around a large water bottle and it did not work. A kid told him his penis is definitely not that big and another one said maybe his is. Some of the boys started blowing their condoms into balloons. I just had to make sure the students knew the difference between a rubber birthday balloon and a latex condom. I told them to not use birthday balloons as a condom because it is not the shape of a penis and it won't protect them. They laughed so hard that some of them fell to the ground! A few of my kids filled the condoms with water. Two boys filled it up to a size of an adult cat curled up and brought it into the classroom. They were impressed about how strong latex is. I also showed a picture and talked about the female condom. Overall, it was a good day and I was exhausted. However, all my students were engaged!!! I also learned a lot about the Chinese culture of what they tell students. For example, if a girl uses a tampon, she is no longer a virgin because the hymen might be torn. I guess they do not want girls wearing tampons. Tampons are not very common here at all. Also, if a female has her period, she cannot drink or eat cold things or she will die.

The boys are learning a lot and having some fun too. Thank you boys! Next week, they will be watching "Juno" and learning about STI/HIV/AIDS. I will post some of their sex. ed. questions on my blog sometime next week.

Next week is going to be crazy but festive. I do not get two weeks off for winter vacation. I will be attending a staff Christmas party tomorrow night, the English Corner Christmas party on Sun., wrapping Christmas gifts for an orphanage with the Outreach group, supervising at the student co-ed Christmas party, Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas breakfast and many other festive gatherings! There is a lot of Christmas spirit here but it's not the same as back home... I MISS YOU GUYS!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Shopping for Condoms in KFQ

I went into town this afternoon and my main purpose was to find 120 condoms. I found a sex store! Thank goodness the sign was in English, "Adultstore". Hmmm.... I wonder what is inside. So I went in, the first thing I noticed a 4 year old boy in the store... okay... He was playing with his age appropriate toys, such as trucks. His mom owns the store. I had a hard time telling her that I needed 120 cheap condoms because they are only for showing the kids how to use a condom on a banana/carrot/cucumber. I think the number of condoms that I needed shocked her. I played charades and used my limited Chinese skills and it WORKED! I came out with 120 condoms. Each box had 10 condoms and each box cost me less than $2.00. 20 cents per condom??? hmm... As she was looking for the boxes of condoms, I looked around the small shop. The shop had many different sex toys. They all looked very cheap and not in very good quality. So I only bought 12 boxes of condoms. When I was about to leave, she asked me if I wanted anything else and I said, "No, thank you." She then proceeds to take something out of the drawer; she took out birth control pills. She had several kind of Chinese brands. I quickly left! I will be teaching my grade 10 boys how to use a condom on Thurs.

They thought I would show them porn in class... They were a little sad that I said no and they can watch it on their own time. They have very good questions. I had a good laugh. Maybe I'll post a few of them in a few days.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Quick Summaries ....

I am so behind with blogging...

November 29 - December 5:
- In Planning 10, I taught the students the different steps in solving conflicts. I gave each group a different scenario and I said they could bring props if you want. Some of the scenarios were stealing a cell phone out of a classmate's bag, fight after a basketball game, parents not happy with school marks, etc. One of the skits was a group of friends are smoking, drinking, not doing their homework, and will probably be kicked out of school. Again, forgetting that I am in China, two students brought a cigarette, lighter, and a can of beer to class. There is no legal age here for those products but there are school rules. They started acting and then took out the props, I was shocked but I let them keep going. The students in the class were laughing their heads off. One of the students opened the can of beer and one just lit the lighter but not the cigarette. Thank goodness they did not start drinking the beer and smoking in my classroom.... Next semester, I think I need to change that scenario!

-At the school, the students eat all their meals in the cafeteria almost 7 days a week. The cafeteria has 4 floors. However, students can order out of school grounds. The delivery people can only pass food through or over the fence on one side of the school grounds. The students and delivery people have a system. They give the money, they get the food and then they leave. There are many different businesses though but they somehow figure it out. I will take a picture sometime this week. On Dec. 2nd, I was one of the people purchasing food over the fence, even though I am allowed to leave school premises. We had an office pizza party so I ordered in. The pizza here is not the same as in Vancouver... It's not very good. The delivery guy had to deliver food to students at the same time so we met at the fence. I felt like I was violating school rules. In addition, I was too short to grab the pizzas over the fence so my co-worker and students helped me. There are bars so the delivery man couldn't slide the pizza of that size sideways without tilting the pizza to one side.

- Erin and I went into Dalian City on the weekend. I went to "Olive Garden". It's not the same as in Langley and in the States. However, it was a nice venue and the food was not mad. I ordered a lunch size pasta and it came with pumpkin soup, salad and a coffee and I ordered a dessert, tiramisu for about $12.00 CAD. I will definitely go back =)


December 6 - December 12:
-On Sat. I went into Dalian City on my own. I had to go pick up my wool pants that I got made and a few Christmas presents. I did NOT get lost and I didn't have to take the taxi either =) I resort to taxis if I'm lost here in China. I instead took the train into the city and then I took the trolley. I find it fascinating that the trolley is in the farthest lane from the curb. People get off and dodge traffic to get on to the curb and people on the curb would dodge traffic to get on to the trolley. Remember, I told you before even standing on the curb is not safe here in China.
- On my way home from the city, people were selling long johns on the side of the street in black garbage bags! They are only $2 CAD per pair for the thin ones. Let me know if you want a pair! On the train back, someone brought a clothes hanger and she hung her grocery bags on the hanger to the bar. That's an awesome idea. Why didn't I think about it earlier???
- In the evening, I went to KFQ in the Hong Mei area, where a lot of Korean people live, for a Charity Concert. It was put on by a grade 12 student at Maple Leaf. She is a very talented young lady. She plays the violin beautifully, can sing, organized and has a huge heart! There were Korean food, bake sale (thanks to the Maple Leaf teachers), Christmas card sale (thanks to the Outreach Club at Maple Leaf), and great entertainment. I witnessed the Korean break dancing and dance off. WOW! There were a lot of talented youth that performed from dancing, rapping, singing, playing an instrument to throwing a stick around and hitting someone in the face (a teacher from Maple Leaf). I had a fun night!

It's snowing here, windy and in the negatives.... I guess I should start wearing my long johns. Tomorrow I start teaching 120 grade 10 boys sex. education. Any tips? I'll keep you posted!!!