During our time in China, we've managed to acquire a lot of stuff that we can't bring back with us. Darbie came up with the idea that we should have a yard sale, and we did just that. Our students had never heard of such a thing; so, it became a learning experience as well as a shopping opportunity. We told our students that a little bit of everything would be on sale anywhere from 1 kuai ($.68) to 3 kuai ($2.04). If you remember back to the Christmas extravaganza, our students love to build up our possessions in their head (they thought we would be giving them Nintendo Wii's and Gucci Purses for Christmas gifts), so the same frenzy whipped up again. So, even though the "yard" sale officially started at 10:00, we had students ringing the buzzer and dying to get in 2o minutes early. You can check out a few of the goodies below:
All the DVDs and books were gone within the first 10 minutes. Of course, any yard sale that Darbie's involved in will have fashionable clothes, and this one was no exception. 
At 10:00, we pressed the buzzer and they all ran up the five flights of stairs to get first pickings. And they bought...
I love 007's (James Bond, the only guy in the pic) expression in this picture. He's absolutely blown away by something. And then more came, and bought...
Rummaging through the DVDs and books. They came up with some pretty funny questions too, like in Jesse's picture below.
As you can see, he's already got a death grip on the badminton set, but he came and asked about The Old Man and the Sea. "I've heard that first editions are very expensive in America; is this a first edition book?" I told him sorry, and then he said, "Is it at least all in English?" I assured him that it is indeed all English, and is the original version of the book, just not the very first edition of the book. This is why we love of our students. Darbie also shot a video of the opening moments of the sale, and you can check that out too.It was a lot of fun, and we learned one thing: The Chinese love yard sales. They just about bought everything out within the first half-hour. Students that hardly talked in class during the semester were coming up to us asking how much for this gravy mix, Iron Man DVD, or basketball. They would hand us the money for some thing or another and then ask, "What is this thing, and what does it do?" It was pretty funny, and from the looks on their faces, a highlight of their freshman year. For us, we made a total of 280 yuan which equates to about $40!
For most of the students it was the last time we'd ever see each other and so they gave us gifts. One class all signed the school's official t-shirt, while another gave us a photo album with all their pictures complete with special notes on the back. We were very touched by their gestures of appreciation. It was very similar to the end of a summer camp.
Now we're just trying to stay cool (yes, it's finally hot here) in our non-AC apartment, and bumming around for a little over a week until Jimbo bikes in and we whisk him off to the Gobi Desert.
There's still time for you, too!
DB&KM
No comments:
Post a Comment