Shaoyang

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Wasssssssup thugs

So i'm assigned Shaoyang Number 3 Middle School in Shaoyang, Hunan. The "number 3" crap doesn't really mean anything at all, it's just the name. None of the schools really have creative names for the most part as middle schools or primary schools. But the school is a brand new school and they've never had foreign teachers before which is both good and bad. Bad in a sense that they might not have any idea wtf they're doing (so i'm prepared for lots of wtf moments) but good in a sense that I can do absolutely no wrong as a foreign teacher b/c they have no one to compare me to other than my partner from Buckland. So meh. But since it's a new school they are still building some of the apartments so this means my Buckland partner have to be roommates for awhile. It's not so bad, he's a pretty good guy for a Canadian. He does say "Eh" a lot which I find funny but he's been a cook for the last 15 years so mmmmmmmm :D and it's nice to have someone to go exploring with and to bounce ideas off of since we're both so new at this.

Hunan is known for FIREWORKS! So there are millions of firework stores around and seriously EVERY night there are random fireworks going off for reasons unknown to me still. So tonight, since it's a holiday there will be an amazing show. Hunan is also known for extremely spicy foods. I haven't had a taste of this really yet but I have a feeling I will very soon. Hunan is also the birthplace of Mao ZeDong which is really cool being in Mao Country. Yesterday in a store we saw a cassette tape of classical music played to someone reading Mao zeDongs poetry.....very random. Mao's Greatest Hits. So there's a lot of cool stuff to see here and hopefully i'll get the chance to see most of it but who knows. Oh, there's also a 2 story Wal-Mart in the county above us, so my roommate and I are already planning a trip up there! It's sad when we look forward to going to Wal-Mart.....

Aight so THANK GOD I was throw in to Shaoyang in the Hunan Province. Why? Well first, if I went to Sichuan or Shaanxi Provinces I would have had to fly there. And apparently flights within China only allow one bag under 20kg's or some crap. A lot of people came with their whole houses, so some people were being charged an extra 600RMB for all their excess and overweight baggage. I wouldn't have had to pay nearly that much but still. So I got to go by train! Wooooo!

So Chinese trains are supposed to be really bad and everyone was like "You're in for a ride" but we have no problems. Our driver dropped us off at the Guilin Train Station and we're standing out front like .......yup we have no idea what we're doing. So we walk in and amazingly we had no problems. Found out terminal easily and found our car easily and found our little station easily. The trains were real cool, 17 cars and had like 20 compartments in each car. Each compartment had 6 beds stacked up ceiling, 3 on one side and 3 on the other. LUCKILY we had no one else in our compartment so it was sweeeet. The train ride was unnerving because we had no idea when to get off. But again, lucky for us there was a young college age kid in the compartment next to us who spoke just enough Chinglish to let us know when to gtfo, and also the train attendants ran up to us and were like "Get ready to jump off." So it was pretty cool.

Upon leaving the train station there was a huge welcoming party from our school waiting to pick us up. Mind you this was about 10:30pm. So about 10 people were there waiting for us, our FAO, the FAO Assistant, a bunch of teachers and the principal or something along with the Buckland Rep. Of course they had to take us out to dinner so we went to some fancy restaurant and ate some good food. Then at 12am we finally get to our apt. They're showing us the apt and that stuff works blah blah blah and then they bring up the teaching schedule.

So Lisa (Our FAO) says "One of you is teaching Juniors 1 & 2 (7th and 8th grade) and the other will teach Juniors 3, and Senior 1 & 2's (9th - 11th grade)." We're like ummmmmm what? I was supposed to teach Senior 2's and Donovan (My Canadian roommate) was supposed to teach Senior 1's. This was before we knew how small the school was. So we are saying to teach other that we'll have to call Buckland and talk to Betts. Then they say "For tomorrow just play some games with them, don't go into anything complex." This is at 12am and they are wanting us to wake up to teach the next day when we have no lesson plans, and no idea wtf we're getting into. So I tell them we won't start til Wednesday and they reluctantly agreed.

So the next days were spent wandering the city, getting to know where we are, getting ourselves situated, and getting taken out to many meals. Wasn't so bad at all. The apt had everyone stated in the contract except a DVD player. I'm really not worried about that b/c I would never use it anyway. But we got a computer, internets, washing machine, fridge, cooking crap that's all rusted and nasty, two bedrooms, a working western toilet etc etc. Aside from a couple of leaks in the bathroom and having no gas for hot water (Which both were fixed promptly after we said something) we were in good shape. Still have to clean the apt tho as it's pretty dirty.

So Chinese schools are very different from what we're used too. They use the textbook and only the textbook. They get no homework, they get no tests, none of that. Instead they have government mandated exams (like FCAT on steriods) like every year that tells them basically what school and class they can go to. So after this fall semester they will have exams, and I will see many students disappear because they didn't do well enough to stay in my class, or maybe not even to stay in my school. So these exams are very well enforced and the whole education system is built around passing the exams. So instead of the students learning anything, they spend ALL their time MEMORIZING the textbooks. If they don't do well on the exams after Senior middle school, they cannot go to University, or they can go to some crap University. After this, that's it. There are some colleges that are like adult colleges or some crap but I dunno how those work really, if their exam based or if they just cost a lot of money. But the colleges, will be English colleges not like your normal college. BUT China is having an increase number of vocational schools which actually teach skills rather than memorization.

Another great thing about the schools here is that they have NO custodial staff. Which is interesting b/c they seem to create the most useless jobs to get more people working, yet they have no janitors. The STUDENTS are in charge of cleaning the schools. How it is all sorted I dunno but there is a student in charge of cleaning the blackboard off in between each class, so I don't have to worry about it, and Friday school was let out early (only like 25 minutes early) so the students could clean. They mops and sweep all the floors, clean the statues, sweep the walk ways and the concrete every day. It's pretty crazy seeing school let out and the kids getting to work on cleaning. Not like it matters, most students live on campus in the dorms. I haven't seen the dorms but i've seen one room which is really just 6 beds. I don't know if that is a dorm or what it is but it was scary in there. No room to study, which is why most of them are in the classrooms studying til 10:30 at night.

There is a gate all the way around the school, so the only way in or out (Unless you're a ninja) you have to go through the front gate which is guarded always. During school the gate is shut and I dunno what time they close it at night. But lucky for me, the guards all know and like me and my roommate, I mean, we're the only white people around so ofc we're easy to remember.

My school is somewhat special. Most Chinese English Teachers do not know English, they teach ENGLISH in CHINESE. So most students can read/write barely, but have never spoken or listened to English dialogue before. But my school, all the Chinese English Teachers speak English, and even some of the normal teachers speak English as well. Yesterday I met a Chemistry teacher by a building that spoke English, I was amazed. So my school is probably the best school in the district which is great. Also, majority of schools just do the core subjects needed for the exams (Chinese, English, Physics, Math, Geography, History, Science, Chemistry etc) but this school also has PE classes and Art Classes which is a huge rarity in China.

So Wednesday comes and we start "teaching" which just consisted of introductions and that crap. I have 17 classes teaching grades 9-11 which is fine. Each class is 45 minutes. The great part is that I only have class earlier than 10:15 one day of the week. So I get to sleep in pretty good. School here goes from 8:25 to 11:55 when they have lunch. Lunch lasts until 2:45pm b/c Chinese culture love nap time. And they seriously do all go take naps after lunch, it's great. So then class resumes from 2:45 to 5:20. After that a lot of students stay in the school until about 10:30 at night studying. It's ridiculous how much they study. But my schedule is great, I only see my Junior 3's once a week which is sad because they are soooo much fun and their English is the best in the school. Then I see my Senior 1's and 2's twice a week which is great b/c all except one class is really fun. This one class is TERRIBLE. It's a Senior 1 class but all they know is the ABC's. So it's pathetic and they will all fail their English part of their exams more than likely. But all in all I only have 11 DIFFERENT classes which is pretty sweet. Another advantage of a small school here.

So the students are just amazing. They are so nice, so interested in me, so excited to have a foreign teacher it just makes me so happy. All the girls are super great and they are more willing to run up and talk while the guys, interestingly enough, are super shy and are hesitant to say anything. But it's cool, i'd rather talk to the ladies than the men 😉. But you can tell they never get a chance to see foreigners. On the streets I stop traffic, people stare, etc, it's funny. We're getting more and more girls wanting to come up and get their picture taken with me which is awesome. And on the streets people love to "show off" that they can say Hi and eagerly do so. On campus is the same. Kids are screaming "HELLO" at me from all angles, i'm getting ambushed with "HELLOS" so I have to look around to find who's screaming at me so I can wave and say Hi back. People in the back of cafes screaming "HELLO" just eager to get my attention so I can acknowledge them. It's truly an amazing experience the excitement of everyone that just wants the attention of the foreigners. Another funny thing is how trained they are to say things in English. Any group of kids you can go up to and say "How are you?" And in perfect unison they all recite "I'm fine thanks, and you?" It's hilarious, I do it on purpose just to get them to do it.

The girls are great, all they do is compliment me constantly, something I probably needed. For the first time ever someone told me I have beautiful fingers......... I was like wtf. Tons of students in class asking if I have a girlfriend, asking if they can have my phone number, my e-mail, my QQ (Chinese AIM), what I think of Chinese girls, what I think of them specifically. It's crazy, but I love it. It's also funny to see the amount of people sneaking pictures of me from their camera phones. We were in KFC yesterday and people looooved to get sneaky shots of us. Not that I care but w/e, it's funny. I just feel great here, I love embarrassing girls by just doing little flirty things, a wave to someone starring at me, a wink, or just saying Hi, it's so great.

So yesterday we went to Ms. Hello (We call her Ms Hello because we don't know her name, but she knows English enough to say Hello and some numbers and stuff. And in Yangshuo there was a local store guy who ALL he knew was Hello and made a point to say Hello to everyone walking by his store. So everyone went to his store to buy drinks and stuff and just called him Mr Hello, even the staff at Buckland.) and ran into 2 of my students, one real cute girl but I didn't remember her name (her name was Lucy and the other girl was Laura), and one of her friends that I remember talking to out of class but not in class. So anyway they demanded that they take us to the park which was like an hour walk or some crap so off we went. It was fun, we had a good time and the park was pretty nice. But they demanded that we see them again tomorrow so the one girl can cook for us. We kind of panic'd because our apt is a mess, still filthy, and we have NOTHING to cook with. So we had to convince them to let us take them to KFC. Then we just walked around the town some more and again it was a real nice day. The one girl, Laura, we gave the nickname of Zai ga no ming; which in Chinese means "Dirty Farmer." I have a feeling calling each other farmers is gonna be a fad that i'm to blame for. In my classes I told them that unless they wanted to be farmers, they really would want to know English. So i'm happily to blame for that.

But we have a long weekend this week. Today is Mid-Autumn Day. What does that mean? I have no idea. But Autumn Day is Oct 1st, so we're mid-way through the month. This is like having a holiday called Mid-Christmas in July. Makes no sense but hey we have no school so w/e. And we got free moon cake so it's all good. But tonight we have been invited to have dinner with our Landlords whole family. None of them speak English so it will be quite an experience. Afterwards we might go to the park and watch the fireworks and stuff so I don't know. So until next time!

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Photos

Shaoyang
SHAOYANG WASSUP

Shaoyang 2
YUP

Shaoyang 3
WUTWUT

Shaoyang Number 3 Middle School
MY SCHOOL

Traffic Lights
This timer on the light shows exactly how much longer the light will remain. It does the same for green and yellow lights. Makes crossing sooooo easy!

Lucy and Zai ga no ming
Two of my students that we hung out with 2 days.

Students
These would be my roommates students. So friendly!

English Books
Not my books, but they were actually used lol

Shaoyang Number 3 Middle School 2
Another shot of my school.

Shaoyang Number 3 Middle School 3
Basketball courts and stuff at school.

Over school walls
Over the school walls lies a giant ghetto. It's much worse than this believe me.

Zai ga no ming
Zai ga no ming again. In front of the park there is this random building with a giant tv for no reason.

Comments

[Gamma]

Good stuff
I find all of this very interesting. I can't say what Gamps would think. He hasn't seen it yet. I love it all. Good luck ! ! !

[PoDUNK]

Wow
Dang dogman, you are quite the celebrity. Dirty farmers farm watermelons!!!

[Uppercuts McShutup]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dude, you can't stop there. It's Mao country. That is pretty awesome. I wish I had beautiful fingers.