Blogs from Xifeng, Qingyang, Gansu, China, Asia - page 2

My school is busy doing exams for the various year groups and so I have spent some of my week visiting other schools. We visited a rural primary school in another county and were the special guests at the graduation ceremony. We observed and fedback on a couple demonstration lessons, visited some general lessons and played some games and then gave a speech at the ceremony. We of course were then invited to rather a tasty meal afterwards. This week we also learned that we were not the only foreigners in the town. There are also some working at the local university and 2 other middle schools in the town. It was quite a revelation. We met up with them on Friday night a drink and again on Sunday for a meal as some of them ... read more

This weekend we visited Xian, the nearest big city for a coffee and a culture fix! At the youth hostel we were staying in, we bumped into some other VSO volunteers and had our evening meal with them. I felt quite a fraud as we ended up eating pizza! Not very Chinese! Later on, we met up with another volunteer and ended up going down “Bar Street” for a few drinks. It all felt rather strange as the day was spent doing “western things” and here we were in China. It felt far removed from our daily life in Xifeng. The next day, we visited an animal research centre. The centre rescues pandas, bears, golden takins and ibis from the nearby mountains which are all endangered. The conditions were mixed but the aim was to release ... read more

A bit of a quiet week this week. and so not too much to report. Work has been my main focus. I’ve spent most of the week preparing for a training session that I will do with the Heads of Department on how to run an effective department. It requires quite a lot of research as schools are run quite differently to what I am used to and trying to find out the right information requires the right questions and this can take time. Me not speaking Chinese doesn’t really help either! Also, every Thursday afternoon I do a workshop with the English Department about British Culture. This week we discussed Food and Drink. Besides teaching them about traditional dishes such as Yorkshire Pudding, Bubble and Squeak, I explained to them about the various mealtimes. They ... read more