Movie in the Survey Class

This afternoon my survey class was ahead of the other (they were at a meeting), so I showed them the movie Blow Dry to get a taste of what English countryside life is like.

There were dead people (in China they cremate their loved ones), there was high fashion, there were small town jokes, a lot more seriousness than I remembered, and, oh yes, lesbians.

I forgot for a moment that might ick some people out. Right. Sorry class, better get used to the foreigners okay with sleeping with people of the same gender. Not everyone is okay with it, but society has come to accept it, no matter how grudgingly, and it shows up in our media. Whoops.

They enjoyed the lack of quiz, though.

And there were sheep! It's always fun to see sheep.

Other than that, remember the student who I explained sex to? Well, she asked me questions today about the female anatomy. She'd never seen a picture of a uterus before, let alone know what all the different parts were. Nor did she know why women had their period before, either. So I showed her lots of pictures of diagrams, uterus, clitoris, penis, and baby diagrams (I will say I like the baby ones the best). I explained how giving birth works ("It's so big! How can it fit?").

She says she's afraid of being dumb, or sounding stupid. But she's not stupid. Not by a long shot. She's curious, and wants to know, and smart about so many things, so when I explain to her I feel like I'm explaining how to construct a sentence in English. She asks a lot of questions and we go into each one. It takes time to learn this stuff.

I don't mind explaining. I rather like finding out what schools do and don't teach you in China, and I enjoy informing people. I try to do it in a way that they don't feel awkward, either, and I don't beat around the bush. I'd rather give her some sex education, because I feel that that's necessary to have safe sex. She was telling me of classmates that didn't know about condoms existing, got pregnant, and ended up having back-door abortions that left them unable to have children. Oh, and the guys left them. None of that should happen. They should have been informed and given the tools to make safe sex choices. (Because, when it's said in done, those that want to have sex will have sex, and I'd rather make it safe that not acknowledge what they're going to do).

So I had fun with that.

Then I went to English Corner, had cake, had more cake. I also somehow managed to steal William's hat, so now I have a green hat. (If a man in China wears a green hat, it means his wife/girlfriend is cheating on him). Granted, the hat is not mine for keeps, but whatevs. I will have it for today, and will probably give it back in the morning. But it makes for a neat social custom story, so it's justified.