Oct. 2006 - China - The Beginning

From Oct. 27th - 2006
Here are portions of emails I've sent out so far this week:

Monday was my first day of class. As soon as I walked in the classroom, all of the kids started clapping. They were so excited to see me. I'm sure you can imagine how red my face went. But the students had prepared questions for me, some of them were quite funny. Their English is pretty good. The students range in age from about 18-20. Class sizes also range - smaller classes have about 15 kids, while the larger classes are about 50. I like the smaller classes because it is easier to see & talk to everyone without shouting.

The school is just down the road - about a 15 minute walk. I can actually see the school from my livingroom window. Mondays are an hour and a half of class - 10-11:30 and Tuesdays are also an hour and a half, but starting at 8. Wednesday I have class in the afternoon - the first is 2:30-4 and the second is 4:15 to 5:45-ish. Thursday is just like Tuesday - 8 till 930. And then Friday is like Wednesday. So I don't teach many hours, but that leaves plently of opportunity to pick up part time work.

Last night we had dinner with another English teacher at the school. His name is Jason and he is Australian. Most restaurants have the veggies on a table and the seafood swimming around in tanks, so you pick what you want to eat. The shrimp was boiled and served whole - eyes and all. You peel everything off and then eat it. Everything you order comes on individual plates for everyone to share. In addition to the shrimp, we had an oyster omelette, some angel hair pasta with small veggies and fried egg and also some kind of lettuce cooked in garlic. It was all really good. I will have to work on remembering the Chinese names for all of this food.
Lunch on Tuesday was McDonalds - pretty much the same as at home - only the food was actually hot...hahaha. There were some strange looking things on the menu (like an apple pie, but instead of apple, it was filled with what looked like green peas in some kind of sauce), so I stuck to a cheeseburger and fries.

So far I'm not feeling too culture-shocked, but it is funny to see how many heads turn when they realize I'm not from here.

Tuesday - Class was 8 - 930. This class has just under 20 students and they are Travel & Tourism majors. Each student had about 3 questions prepared for me, just like the classes on Monday. Everyone wanted me to sing and / or dance. I declined (are you surprised?), but asked them to sing. One girl did sing by herself and then the whole class sang that song from public school - Doe, a deer, a female dear - you know? One girl asked me for a hug...it was so cute. Then I gave out a few more. One boy asked me if I like foreign boys....hahaha. So I said yes and he asked if I liked foreign boys like him. Everyone was laughing.

Walmart - what an adventure in the seafood section! Imagine something like the seafood spread at Sobey's or Fortino's only much bigger. Sitting on the ice display, among many other things, was a huge sting-ray - eyes and all. And then there were tanks of live shrimp, another of live turtles, with what looked like soft shells, and another tank of live crabs crawling around. You have to catch the shrimp / turtle / crab that you like and then give it to the guy behind the counter to weigh and price. I'm guessing that if these things don't die in the plastic bag on the way home you do the dirty work yourself.

Last night was Freshman Night 2006 at the school. For about an hour and a half, 1st year students performed skits, dances, a model show and there were a number of singers. One of the boys was from my morning class. It was really entertaining. Oh and the final act was a band - they played one orginal song and also sang "Knocking on Heaven's Door" - it was pretty good too. There were at least a few hundred people in the room. And everyone had whistles. So imagine all of those people clapping AND whistling. Ouch!

Another teacher at the school is taking me shopping on the weekend for aerobics clothes. She needs a workout partner and apparently that is me! I guess going up and down six flights of stairs a few times every day isn't enough. Hahahaha. But it is good to make friends and see different things in the city.