A New School Year

I keep on forgetting that I am not just in China to try out new food, but that I am here to do a job.  Teaching began on Thursday, and the school was, in a word, chaos.  None of the teachers had their block assignments until 7 in the morning, and class began at 7:40.  Internet is not super reliable here, and I believe that their programming system got so behind that they were frantically planning until well into the night.  I was placed with two blocks of English 12, one block of English 11 and one block of Info Tech (computers).  I was shocked at the info tech, as I had been told I was teaching Drama - and had made no plans to teach computers.  Moreover, I could not access the plans online, and I do not own a PC, which is the computer system that they wanted to teach.  I made them draw pictures of the computers they saw in front of them, and label the parts.  It was a grade 10 class, so their English is fairly non-existent.  I ran an hour long computer class without ever turning on the computers.  Golden.  Apparently what I did was actually valuable, but they (thankfully) took away my IT class the next day.  Now I am waiting to get another assignment.  I am fairly content with two preps for now though!

The kids are amazing, and are often waiting in class by 7:15.  They are eager to learn, and very sweet.  At times they fall asleep in class, but I have been making them stand up to jog on the spot.  It is a common problem in the school because they live in dorms and stay up all night playing video games.  I am really enjoying the classes so far, and I am excited to get to know them better.  I am really excited to establish my own routines and systems in the class.  

Unfortunately I have not been taking very many pictures lately, because my iPhone was at China mobile for three days getting unlocked and set up.  The whole thing was quite a sketchy process, but I can now communicate with others, Woo!  I need to buy a camera, but I am not ready to splurge quite yet.  I also have my eye on a bright pink bike with a basket...and that just might come first!

I spent my weekend relaxing and exploring the area.  I got separated from my group in the city, and so I really needed to orientate myself to find my own way home!  It worked out well though, and I even bartered for a new pair of shoes all by myself!  


I am now in a nice routine for my days.  After teaching a few of us usually go to the market or a restaurant for dinner, and then buy some supplies.  It is easiest to just buy food every few days, because fruit and veggies go bad quite quickly.  Plus, it is just enjoyable to amble through the market in the evening!  Tonight I had the strangest food.  I wish I had remembered to take a photo!  It was this thing that looked like a bunch of spaghetti noodles put together, grilled, smothered in hot sauce, with an egg cracked and cooked on it, folded like a crepe, cut up and mixed with a grilled hot dog (very popular here), and then mixed with a scoop of sugar and a few squirts of coke. I had to have it because it was so ridiculous. It actually was delicious though, and very spicy! Plus it cost .75 cents for my filling meal.  You just can’t argue with that!

Life is crazy, wonderful, new and ever exciting here in Jinshitan! 

(Check out my old posts again, I have been able to add a few photos!)