Everything is better in Beijing!

---

Eight days of Beijing Insanity down, only twelve more to go...

CTLC's Beijing training for new participants of our Shenzhen teaching program began 8 days ago - and it already feels like I've been here for a month! Our training is intense with a capital TENSE and that means 10 hour work days for me and my coordinating/assistant team and no real days off for 3 weeks. Our days start with a 7:30 a.m. team meeting followed by a 7:45 rush down 12 flights of stairs (because the hotel elevators keep clogging up and breaking down) where we meet up with the 95 teacher-trainees gathered in the hotel parking lot. At 7:50 we parade this mass down the street to Beijing University where we split off into two groups and go to opposite corners of the (massive) campus. One group has Chinese class all morning while the other group practice teaches at a summer English camp for Chinese students for three hours. Then we have an hour-and-a-half lunch. Then, we gather the group again at 12:45 and split into three groups (which again go to opposite ends of the campus) for the next three hours - one to Chinese class, one to practice teaching, and one to TEFL class. At 4:00 we hold "sample lessons" where my coordinating/assistant team members take turns demonstrating actual lessons they have used successfully in Shenzhen. These are fun because the teacher-trainees get to pretend they are whatever age the lesson is geared to. They particularly enjoy pretending to be a rowdy group of 7-year-olds. Finally, at about 5:00, we all go to dinner. Then, at 7:00, everyone gathers again in our hotel lobby where the teacher trainees study Chinese and prepare their lessons for the next day's practice teaching. The coordinating/assistant team and I circulate among them, answering questions and providing general help. Finally, at about 8 or 9 (or whenever there is no one left to help), we finish for the day, go to our hotel rooms, and fall into an exhausted sleep.

Now, I know that was boring, but friends and family keep asking me about my job and what I do, so I thought I'd better write it out for them to read. Plus it helps explain why I haven't written any entries recently.

We just finished our first session and today was our first day "off." It wasn't really a day off because CTLC organized a tour to the Great Wall for all the participants, and of course the coordinating/assistant team goes along to help out, bond with the new participants, and to make sure we don't leave anyone behind on the Wall. It was a great day and everyone enjoyed getting out of the city a bit and doing something touristy instead of just staying at the hotel studying. After two years together in China, Susan and I finally were at the Great Wall at the same time! It was very exciting for us. Since we'd both been to the Wall several times before, we decided to skip the 20-minute hike from the parking lot to the Wall and take the cable-car up instead. This, it turns out, is a brilliant idea! The cable-car goes to the top watchtower and then you can walk down to the main entrance/exit. Walkers must walk up first to get to the top watchtower and then walk back down to the exit. First timers should walk it, but I think after that initiation (wherein you get exhausted, drenched in sweat, and your calves cry out in pain) you are allowed to take the cable-car on any subsequent visit.

I love the Great Wall! Today was my 6th time and I'm still as awed by it as I was my first time. If you've never seen it, you probably don't realize that it runs across the top of a (low) mountain range. You have to drive up the mountain to get to it and it is awesome to watch the approach from the windshield. Once you actually get onto the Wall, you realize that it is HUGE and you cannot imagine why anyone would ever think to themselves, "I really want to conquer China so I'm going to attack that great big stone wall." What were the Mongols thinking???

---

Photos

Susan and I on the Great Wall
At last, after two years, we're together at a famous Chinese landmark! I do belive this is a first.

My hotel room
Home for the next three weeks. We're staying in a brand new hotel this year and the rooms are really cool! They don't have any closets though, hence all my clothes lying out on the bed.

TA Elyssa hard at work
Elyssa teaches a sample primary school lesson to the teacher-trainees. They got to pretend they were 7-year-olds.

Assoc. Coordinator Susan works hard, too
Susan teaching a sample junior middle school lesson to the teacher-trainees.

Chinese construction workers
This construction is right outside our practice teaching building. It's loud and disruptive.

Chinese construction workers #2
They're building a badminton complex somehow related to the 2008 Olympic games. I feel sorry for the guy on the left. The others don't want to play with him.

Going to the Hoilet
After drinking too much tea, Susan and Ivy need to use the hoilet.

Victor, the happiest man in China
Victor is one of my Chinese collegues at Beijing University. He and I have worked together for the past three summers. Today, he's the happiest man in China, because he was able to share the cable-car with two beautiful women - Susan and I! (His words, not mine!)

The Great Wall
I love this old woman

Haze on the Great Wall
On one hand, it's a shame it was such a hazy day. On the other hand, the haze shrouds the Wall in an air of mystery.

Susan on the scary stairs
Although this section of the Wall has been restored, the stairs are often uneven and steep. Susan was sure she would fall, but she didn't!

No fun allowed!
This section of the Wall has a long slide you can take back down to the parking lot. These are the rules of the slide. Down near the bottom it reads, "Mustn't be laughing and playing boisterous."

Comments

[Sen]

I'm telling you, we should move there :P