Busier and Busiest ... the way life Bustles

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Classes start on Saturday! It is really crazy. We're still going through training but today was our last day and all we learned was more about individual schools. I got my schedule yesterday. As of now it is as follows (but it will more than likely change).

Monday: 2-4pm Tutoring with a 7 year old Korean named Sally
Tuesday: No Classes
Wednesday: 10am Staff Meeting
1-3pm K5 class
3:15-5:15pm a different K5 class
5:30-7:30pm K2 class
Thursday: No Classes
Friday: 1-3pm Tutoring with a new boy named Che Min Jing
2-4pm Tutoring with Sally (again)
Saturday: 8-10am K3 class
10:15-12:15 K6 class
1-3pm K8 class
3:15-5:15pm K5 class
Sunday: 8-10am K2 class
10:15-12:15 K4 class
1-3pm K5 class
3:15-5:15pm K8 class

To explain this schedule a little more for the classes K2-K5 I only teach for one of the two hours and the Chinese teacher teaches for the second hour. For the K6-K8 classes I teach the full two hours. For the K6 class there is a teacher assistant in the class with me while I teach. But for the K8 class there is no one else in the room, just me! The two K5 classes that I teach are twice a week classes - once on Wednesday and once on either Saturday or Sunday. The other classes I just teach two different classes of K8 students. Here the students are broken down into their levels (from K1-K12) but generally the students get to be older the higher the level gets. I will give you more information about the individual classes when I start to teach them.

Jadd is very much better and walking around. But he was never meant to leave Canada. He doesn't have the motivation to stay here. For those of you who have never been out of the country there are a couple clues as to whether or not you would be able to stay out of the country. First of all if you want to live outside the country. Secondly if you have a lot of motivation to live outside the country for a long period of time. This means leaving any and all connections you may have at home. It also means not giving up the first time you get sick out of your native country (no matter how long you are sick - and most likely you will get sick, depending on where you go). Finally if you're willing to go through the trials of culture shock. As I have said I have not experienced culture shock as of yet but I can see how it would come on. I will soon start to live by myself. The man that I explained was supposed to be my roommate (Russell) doesn't want to live with me so since Jadd is leaving he is going to move in with Craig, which would leave me to live all by myself. This is a very hard thing to do if you don't have local friends (which I was privileged to have in India). I hope that I can start making some local friends here.

Last night I started to make some friends. Cat and I went out to dinner. We went to this place where they have a stove in the middle of the table (it just looks like a flat tile) and they come and put a large steel bowl on it which has meat bones and broth in it. Then you order some meat and some vegetables and put them in the bowl to cook. When they are finished cooking you put the broth in a cup with some spices and then put the meat and vegetables in the cup as well and eat it. We're not sure what it is called in Chinese but the foreigners call it "hot pot". It is very good. I have decided that I am going to stop being a vegetarian while I am here. it is too difficult to stay vegetarian. I never know exactly what I'm ordering and no matter what you order it comes with some sort of meat (even if it is tofu or vegetarian food). Also there are so many new kinds of meat here that I have never tried. When we went to the market they had live silk worms and life seafood that you walk around and see in pots all crawling aound. It is very strange. Apparently you are supposed to fry the silk worms and eat them like popcorn, they are supposed to be pretty good. They also have stinky tofu which apparently is really awful and takes some getting used to to eat. I have not seen it yet. Anyways, after we went out to dinner I came back and went to this little phone stall outside. They had Icy Mint Sprite (or Shuay Bi) which I had never seen before. The man who works there I have seen many times. He was making himself some dinner so I decided to sit down with him and watch him eat. He tried to ask me some questions but my Chinese is very much lacking. He is a very nice man. He works there with a woman but I am not sure if they are married or family or anything. I hope to start being friends with them. I also stayed behind to work on my lesson plans before Cat and I went to dinner yesterday and spent a lot of time with a Chinese girl here named Merry (who I am hoping can become a good friend of mine too). She is very nice, short like I am with very short black hair.

For everyone who is thinking of me all you have to do is look at your watch. For those of you on the East Coast I am exactly 12 hours from you so when it is 5:01pm here (like it is) it is 5:01 am there. Very simple. For those of you in other places just think about East Coast time and how many hours you are off of that and then change it from am to pm or reverse depending on what time of day it is in the US.

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