Advertisement
Published: September 24th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Teacher Elyse
At my desk before we got the letter. This week has been QUITE the ROLLER COASTER ride!!!!!!!!! Are you ready to ride?
Monday- We were told we had a note on our office desk by Cherry, very useful English teacher at our school, she said she had run to class and off she went. I went back to our office and found the following note. (picture in blog) It basically said that Pete and I both had to add 5 classes to our week of Senior 2(Juniors) in the near future. NICE!! We go from 10 classes to 15 in a letter, not even told to our faces. GOTTA LOVE CHINA. Needless to say we were pretty upset.
Last week, we asked them to move some of our classes around so we didn't have big gaps in our day causing us to go back and forth to school. So they decided just to give us more work and then we wouldn't have gaps.
Tuesday and Wednesday- none of the teachers were talking to us, they sensed we were upset but no reason to not talk to us. Also no update of when we would start to teach the 5 additional classes or when they would be.
Teacher Pete
At his desk before we got the letter. Wednesday afternoon- we went to Chinese class and got to see our other friends that are spread throughout the "Massive City" of Shenzhen. We stayed in town after class and went to dinner with two other couples. Kelly and Kris from Florida who attended Vanderbilt in Nashville. Cali and Jimmy from Boston who attended Boston University (BU). We missed Martin and Staci from Seattle who attended Western Washington University cause they had to catch a ride back with their school. See the pictures of us after dinner.
After dinner we saw this homeless man wondering the streets. Check out the photos. Can you say Plumbers Crack? LOL. You know you have hit BOTTOM when this is you.
When we got home it was another roller coaster of emotion from both Pete and I. By the end of the night I though we would be packing our bags soon to come back to the USA.
Thursday- showed up to school got our National Day/Mid Autumn Festival Break schedule finally, classic example of NOWISM in China. We have to teach on Sunday this weekend and the Saturday after the break to make up 2 of the 6 school
Letter
That told us we are to add 5 more classes to our schedule. LOTS of grammar mistakes and misspelled words for an English Teacher to have written. days that we get off. WHAT??? China don't you understand that a vacation are days off and you don't need to make them up, guess not. So we teach random schedules on those extra days. We also were told no more Senior 2 classes added to our schedule as of today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring, I am guessing they will get added again, but not holding my breath. Then we were told by Catherine, Head of English Dept, that the Senior 1 English teachers are taking us out for dinner before the break and also another dinner for when we return from break. Something about tradition in China to wish you a good travel and then welcome you back. My take is that they know we aren't too THRILLED with the school and want to make us feel more welcomed.
Oh China always changing every day can't make up your mind.
Well we are off to dinner with our neighbors Jason and Kathleen who attended University of Arizona. Jason is from Las Vegas and Kathleen is from Seattle.
Only one class on Friday then off to Chinese class and hanging out in the city after
Pete and I
This was in the Futian District after dinner with our friends. class. I will be busy Saturday teaching at the English Language Center and then back to Senior 1 classes on Sunday at Long Cheng Senior High.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.277s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 78; dbt: 0.1548s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mom
non-member comment
hang in there!!!
HANG IN THERE... you are in our thoughts and prayers...see our prayers were answered when they decided not to add classes!!! I wish you luck! I wish you realized that one prep a week is really good!!!!