Traditional Chinese Medicine & Elizabethan Theatre
24 Sep 2009 1 Comment
in Teaching Tags: alchemy, Bartleby, Bee-Bee, chi, death, Drama, education, fate, freedom, Gee, Julius Caesar, life, Literature, madness, magic, Project Gutenberg, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare, TCM, The Congo, theatre, Traditional Chinese Medicine, tragedy, troll, undead, Vachal Lindsay, yin and yang
With 16 teaching hours per week and a four day weekend it seemed that I had an abundance of free time. There were no office hours required, but I provided nine hours during evenings throughout the week for students wanting to talk about literature, culture, or life. It had to be evenings because the studentry were in classes all day long, day after day. But despite this I was practically on sabbatical.
I had the free time to get literary, practice yoga, explore grimy Chenzhou, and plan my upcoming Tibet expedition. I contacted the Xiangnan University medicine school faculty to meet with them for a tour of their facilities, and learn about the Chinese health care system. It would make for another podcast. And I researched online. Research was the first step to finding out what I wanted to learn and explore.
Before I contacted the medicine school, I acquainted myself with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The internet enabled me to consult the starry forest of the night, and find homeostatic balance between yin and yang, anima and animus. The stars aligned and those who had the sight could decipher them and see the interrelationship between the macrocosmos and the microcosmos. I felt chi flow around me, through me. But I was not a Jedi yet.
The Journey Began
05 Sep 2009 Leave a Comment
in Teaching Tags: Drama, dreams, Literature, nightmares, private schools, public schools, Teaching
Reality Laid Somewhere Between Daydreams and Nightmares
I got out of bed at dawn Wednesday. It had been restless night spent thinking about all the clever things I would say to make students wonder if I was some reincarnated Confucius in disguise. I had spent the last few days losing track of time in a kaleidoscopic tour of Chinese culture and hospitality. And I had spent the nights of that last disorienting week of summer vacation dealing with nightmares about the first day of class. These nightmares had nothing in common with my daydreams. In them I was continuously lost in labyrinthine hallways, losing my books despite fruitless nightlong search and rescue missions, and showing up in class naked. Teachers all over the world were having similar nightmares.
That morning I ran around the campus and fried eggs with cilantro and chilis and cooked oatmeal for breakfast. I listened to a podcast on teaching literature and recited poetry to warm-up my vocal cords. Then I put on my best pressed out clothes, slid into a pair of spit shined brown leather shoes, and double-checked that I had everything I needed to teach my first lesson. I advanced confidently in the direction of my dreams with a book of Tang poetry in both hands, breathing deeply to harness the power of qi for the long day’s journey ahead.
A Dream Come True
01 Sep 2009 Leave a Comment
in Podcasts Tags: Classes, Drama, Literature, Students
After being informed by Xiangnan University that I will be teaching Literature to juniors and Drama to seniors, I head off to dinner along noisy streets to ponder the situation…
