school

I have my own desk in one of the English offices at Bei Dou Xiao Xue. computer's pretty new looking but the internet is slow and the default language is of course Chinese. So I have to rely on my memory of which buttons and links are which on my normal webpages, like this one and gmail. Tomorrow is the official first day of school and there will be a flag raising ceremony or something tomorrow morning. I really don't know much about what's going on becuase that's just China's way. I still don't know my class schedule. My contact teacher (Anne Feng) said I wasn't going to be actually teaching tomorrow, but I still don't really know what's happening. I'm a little intimidated to be teaching science, even though it's primary school science. I'm actually more disappointed than intimidated especially since I'll have 2 classes each of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders and I will see each of them twice a week. this means that I won't have to try to learn 15x50 kids' names like we were sort of preparing to do. but this does mean that I will have to teach 6 different lessons each week compared to the 1 lesson per week that we anticipated. Sucks. Also, I just don't understand why they (and not only my school because one of my friends is also teaching primary school science) would bring in a native english speaking teacher and have them teach science and not english. strange. I was really looking forward to conversational english and now I just have to get through the book and make sure they are all actually learning something concrete since they'll be tested on it at the end.

I will be teaching 12 classes a week, but I also have to correct workbooks and give grades, which my program told us we wouldn't really have to do. I think the rest of the time I'm supposed to stay at school to prepare lessons and grade stuff. but no office hours because the students aren't really supposed to be in the office wing. School provides me with free breakfast and lunch, just like the regular teachers get. My teacher said it isn't great food, but what do you expect? I actually had school lunch yesterday since I had to come in a few days this week and it really wasn't bad at all. I've heard stories of weird things (well, maybe weird to non-chinese people) but mine was quite normal home cooking. Oh, and about having to come in these past couple of mornings...I come in and there isn't anything for me to do. Yesterday I got here at 8:30 and one of the younger teachers, when I asked her what we are supposed to be doing these days before school, said simply, "nothing. you shouldn't even come in." but then I asked Anne if I had to come in this morning, she said yes, I should. so here I am. but I came in way later..around 10:15. and I chatted with her a bit. and then she had to go off and pass out the year's books to the kids. and she just told me that I could go online on my computer. so here I am. speaking of the kids: she and the other teachers are passing out the books to the kids who are all here the day before school starts. I think they all had some orientation meeting a few days ago, but all the students are here today cleaning up the school. I looked out my window (which, if you remember, looks out over the back courtyard and straight into the classroom building) and I saw all these kids in the classrooms cleaning. some hanging out the windows, between the window and the bars that cover the windows, washing the outside of them. and as I walked around the block to the front entrance, there were kids outside sweeping the track and doing all sorts of hard labor to get the school back in shape for the beginning of the year. haha. quite entertaining.

my apartment

is gross and I hate it. It is located in a dirty little apartment building right behind my school. The building is owned by the school, I think. Most people on our program live right next to their schools, but I swear mine is the worst of them all. I live on the fourth floor in a 2-bedroom apartment by myself. The guy who taught at my school last year lived in a room in a shared apartment on the first floor with some other single teachers. This year they said they decided to make the living situation a little more comfortable for the new teacher. If mine is better than what he had, I cringe at the thought of what it was like. So yes, my place is huge. Living room, 2 bedrooms, a small bathroom, a weird back room that looks like it used to be for laundry, but now is just dirty tile with my tiny fridge in one corner, a "kitchen" area which is just some marble countertops and gross dirty tile floor (and no sink yet), a grody little laundry room where my washing machine is supposed to be (whenever they get around to putting one in), and a freaky little corner with a gross little water spout and a drain in the floor. My bathroom is gross. Can use a really good cleaning. The toilet and sink look relatively new, and the shower is brand new, but they only installed it after I had been there for 2 days. My contact teacher (who I love) took me to her house the first night to hang out and take a shower, and the second night I showered at my friend's place. I don't have a telephone or internet yet, which is why I'm at starbucks, and the empty second bedroom is barren with prison-like cement floors. I don't have a dresser or a nice wardrobe; instead I have a little fake wardrobe thingy. one of those shabby frames with cloth covering that you can zip up to hide the clothes. My air conditioner is located in my bedroom, and it is one of those super old ones that hangs halfway out the window and drips water down onto my balcony which overlooks the back of my school. Yes, at least I have a balcony. But it isn't super nice or anything. My living room is sparsely furnished with 2 funny 80's style chinese chairs and a semi-nice coffee table, a tv table and tv, and a newly installed water cooler which is my favorite thing about my apt. my bedroom is outfitted with fake linoleum flooring, which I want to buy more of to cover the dirty floor in the rest of the apt, or just the living room at least. it'll make it a little better. but my school won't reimburse me if I do. They really aren't buying me anything. some of my friends' schools are saying they can buy whatever they need and give them the receipts. and everywhere I've been other ppl have really clean dorm room studio style places. I really wish I had a small clean place. I just feel like it's so empty with all the open area. sigh.

beijing

ok, I can't seem to figure out how to post stupid pictures on here. I upload them and they say it's okay, but they don't show up. beijing was a blur. I never remember details. You know me. I'll try though. and maybe add random details in later posts. I met a whole lot of people in beijing, some very cool, some cool, some okay, and some boring, and some annoying. but with 100 americans, you're always sure to get a good mix. For three 6-day weeks, we had just about no time off. It was 5 days of school/teaching then one day off for obligatory visits to the great wall and the forbidden city. Each day we had to be at Beijing University ("BeiDa") at 8:30am until 11:30, then we got a nice 1.5 hour lunch break, then work again from 1-4. Each week was a combination of 2 of these 3 things: Chinese class every week in the morning or afternoon; teaching english to kids who attended the summer english camp for 2 of the weeks, morning one week and afternoon the other week; and TEFL (teaching english as a foreign language) class in the afternoon for one week. Doesn't sound that bad, but 3 hours straight of each of these things is really tiring. Add the Chinese summer's humidity, heat, and Beijing's horrible air pollution. And showering twice a day, and lesson planning for the next day, and that leaves just a little bit of time to go out. We stayed at the Furama Xpress hotel in Beijing. It was Japanesey and pretty nice. Besides the great wall (super exhausting just to get up to the actual wall) and the forbidden city/tiananmen square, I saw a chinese acrobat show and the summer palace. Besides that, I saw just about nothing of beijing. pretty sad.

The kids that I taught in Beijing were really smart and very competent in english. This is expected since their familes are probably wealthy because this was a summer camp they had to register and pay for. My kids were about older middle school age and I absolutely loved them. The class was only about 17 kids but we taught them for 3 hours a day. Here in Shenzhen, our classes will be near 50-60 kids for 40 minute periods.

Almost every morning, my roommate Grace (who I met in berkeley before we left) and I got these yummy egg crepe thingies for breakfast from a man who had a cart on the street across from our hotel. They were only 2 kuai (25 cents). I miss those already. His wife would work with him most days and I think she liked me. I have video of him making my breakfast one morning which I'll put up on YouTube sometime.

chinese traffic is really crazy but I've gotten used to crossing the street.

My biggest problem so far is the language barrier. Especially since I "look chinese." I so very much hate the feeling of stupidity and inferiority every time I have to make contact with a chinese person, which, as you can imagine, is all the time. Yes, I can walk down the street and not get stares like my non-asian companions. But whenever I have to try to speak, I have to explain that I can't say/understand anything more complicated than "no, I do not want that dish spicy" and "where is the bathroom" and "how much does this cost".

I can't think of anything else right now. feel free to ask me questions and jog my memory.

it's been a long time

hi kiddies, it's time for some major updates, no? well, where do I start? I guess I'll talk about today. It is about 6pm on Monday, August 28, 2006 and I am sitting in a ridiculously expensive starbucks in kingglory plaza in the downtown district of Luohu, Shenzhen, China, where I live. I am here for the comfy couches and free wifi. I just drank a large cappuccino which cost me 25 yuan, I think. that's about $3 and about the same I would pay back home. but here, if I went to some normal not too fancy little restaurant, that would buy me almost 3 dinners. Shenzhen food (and probably everything else) is more expensive than what I got used to in Beijing, which is strange to me. But I guess Shenzhen is a special economic zone, and Peking University, where we lived near, is far from downtown Beijing.

In a few hours I will make my way over to some place in Futian, the other downtown district, for our Welcome to Shenzhen party. It will be good to see some old faces from my program from Beijing because we all split up last Tuesday to go to our respective apartments and schools all over this huge city of at least 8 million people. I've been hanging out with my better friends and people who live relatively nearby and it's been a good week off after the crazy busy-ness of Beijing.

I attended the first meeting of the semester at my school this morning. It was a marathon 3 hours long and after I was introduced as the foreign teacher (to looks of surprise, which I get everywhere, because I "look Chinese" but do not speak) I got to sit and try not to fall asleep as I had absolutely no idea what the headmaster was babbling on and on about. My school is called Bei Dou Primary School and it is located in the south of Luohu district. I am beginning to get to know my area but it is coming slowly. I will be teaching grades 4-6, which was a little upsetting when I found out last week because I wanted to teach middle school, but I think it'll be good. I will be teaching these little kids science, surprise surprise. In english. because they have to take an exam at the end of the year or something. Kind of weird since I was planning on teaching conversational english and I have lots of lesson plans from teaching in Beijing. I will be following a book's curriculum, which is good because it'll be easier, but bad because it'll be boring and I won't get to make up my own lessons. I'll let you know how it goes.

oh by the way, we had to get a medical exam last monday so the government, who we work for, can make sure we're not spreading horrible western diseases. we got to do a sonogram and and ekg, which was cool. they also had to test our blood and I think I got some inexperienced nurse who chose one of my side veins and poked a hole right through it. here's a picture of my bruise one whole week later. it's a lot better than it was earlier this week.

updates...

are coming soon! I promise. Well, maybe I should say soon-ish. haha. It's really busy here in Beijing and we are leaving for Shenzhen tomorrow night (Friday) with barely any free time. Yes, soonish.

first street food

a large slice of cantaloupe-like melon, freshly cut by the not-chinese immigrant. it was very good, and I was sort of scared to eat it, but it was worth it. I will post a picture later, maybe.

in china

Hello, don't worry, I made it here safely on what was my monday morning and your sunday afternoon. sort of chaotic and unorganized, but you know, it's china. I'm doing fine so far. today I had my first day of "practice" teaching. it's quite full of pressure, because they didn't let us know until the last minute what age we might get and how good they are. all this after a frantic afternoon of trying to plan a lesson for 3 hours worth of class. AND these kids are paying for this summer program! but I suppose they really just want people with the correct accent. It actually went very well, and of course some of my kids asked me where I was from and if I spoke chinese. which I don't. language class is looking to be hard and a lot of work, which is expected. We're pretty busy all the time, so I'll have to leave you here because I'm starving for some of the very cheap food (by american standards, of course), and I still have to do my homework and go over the lesson plan my team of 3 prepared for tomorrow. (I actually got pretty lucky because most groups have 2, which means less teaching responsiblity for me while I'm still nervous and clueless.) But no, don't worry, the teaching went quite well, and these kids are super smart. I'll hopefully update in a more detailed fashion sometime soon? ok bye.