Yangzhou Summer Camp

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Arrving at Pudong International Airport, the meeting point for the teachers I got a little confused on where we were meeting because confusingly it wasn't at the meeting point : ) but it didn't take me so long and I relaxed and chatted to some of the teachers I would be spending the next two weeks with. They had initially planned to have an evening welcome meal on our arrival in Yangzhou however as our arrival was now expected to be about 9pm we believed the day had been changed. So as many of the teachers had just arrived from long haul flights then a 4hour bus ride we were a little surprised to say the least when we stopped by a very nice restaurant for dinner! The dinner was amazing and everyone was very hungry but it was very unexpected. The food just kept coming and coming with the delicious dumplings at the end by which time I was full beyond full. But it was nice to meet everyone and we then headed off to the hotel to checkin to our rooms.

High up on the 16th floor myself and Fran another teacher shared a suite and opposite us were Shirwa and Chad, we were impressed! The suites were great we just wished we had a lounge area but as the days went by we kind of made Fran's bedroom into that anyway. After a really good nights sleep we had a free day to do as we pleased and allow those that had flown long haul to recover from their jetlag. Fran, Shirwa and myself took the bus to the city, we had to buy gifts for our teachers and students and would be very busy over the next two weeks so today was a good day. Yangzhou is a really beautiful city and the city centre is no different, we walked around for a couple of hours and Fran and Shirwas found some gifts that looked like they could have got them from London! But most places don't really expect someone to ask for 24 of them so they had to be ordered to be collected later. Taking the bus back to the hotel we got chatting and then thought we had missed our stop and quickly jumped off the bus, big mistake. I found a cake shop and wanted to order a cake for my birthday, I thought it was perfect just a short walk from the hotel and I would be able to collect it during my lunch break. Then we realised how lost we were and how far from the hotel we actually were. In the end we had to take a taxi back and still had no idea about the route of the bus. It was then time to get things organised for a very busy 2 weeks before trying out some of Yangzhou's local delicious food.

Thursday and it was time to head to the school for orientation. We spend the morning getting to know each other, we spent the morning discussing plans, finding out what was expected of us, playing with a parachute and checking out the school before a delicious buffet lunch with all the teachers. After been introduced to our teacher and student it was time to decorate our classrooms. We had walls to paint, door signs to make and a classroom to make look colourful in our countries theme. It was a fun afternoon but went very quickly and my classroom still needed a lot of work! But that would have to wait until I met my students the following day.

Friday, time to meet the students : ) I had the youngest students in camp and they were cute! As they arrived throughout the morning we made cut out fish and pictures of Italy to stick up on the wall. I walked out of the class to go to the store room and get more card and one of the kids was panicking where I had gone bless, there was still May the teacher and Sophie the student. After they did their Chinese introductions I got them to do a little in English, all but two had English names. English names for Chinese kids are funny as they nearly always end in a vowel and I'm not sure if sometimes the teachers are just having a funny day or if they kids name themselves but some of the names are just plain stupid really! Everyday we were to have lunch with the children in the school canteen and dinner in the western cafe. After lunch we had a two hour break for which we could go back to the hotel for and in the evening there were various activities that changed everyday, sometimes we had to join them other times we didn't. Friday afternoon it was time to start some real teaching however they also had swimming amongst other activities to do during the day so we headed over to the pool for an hour. The following day was the opening ceremony and we had to prepare a flag and cheer for it as well as practice the camp cheer and that was the afternoon gone just as quickly as the morning and our first real day was over.

Saturday, My Birthday and Bingo. It was a normal rotation day teaching and time to send my classes to other teachers in the afternoon to be taught a different sport, country and holiday, each day I would teach badminton, April Fools Day and Italy to a different class from the B camp. In the morning I would teach my class and we would have a fun lesson, our first fun lesson was science and we made aeroplanes : ) I had bought a birthday cake to share with my class, initially I thought the bakery was near by the hotel but it wasn't, very kindly the driver we had to drive all the teachers to and from the hotel collected it for me while I was teaching : ) I was so happy! And it looked amazing! Then in the afternoon when my homeroom class returned to me everyone ate cake and they all sang happy birthday to me! It was so nice! It had been Marcus's 40th birthday earlier in the week and he had told no-one, in the evening we had another birthday cake after dinner to share and again everyone sang happy birthday to Marcus and myself but between us we still failed to blow the candles out the first time. In the evening we played Bingo with 400 kids! To say it was somewhere between fun, interesting and manic is probably right.

Then it was time for birthday celebrations! We made it back to the hotel about 830 and were all showered and ready by 9, not everyone went but some were still recovering from jetlag and the first few days but it was a great night. We some how found ourselves in a cafe type bar, the problem in China is they don't believe in drinking or eating anything cold so it was warm beer, no ice, no juice, no music etc etc but hey its the company that counts and it was great company! We had a great night but there were definately some very tired people the next day.

Sunday, opening ceremony, In general I don't like doing speachers but this one had to be done, all I had to say was my country, a fact about it and introduce myself and class. Easy. Ish, once I changed my fact from it was an Italian who discovered America to the Italians invented the piano and theromemetre (the first didn't go down very well with the Americans). My class did their cheer and we listened to all the other before having photos taken. We presented our flags to the other classes and I realised for the youngest the flag wasn't too bad, just colourful.

Monday, Sing a long, It was just a normal teaching day and the kids had dance classes, the dance teacher was horrible and they practiced some basic ballet moves, we joined in a little but ballet dancing really isn't my thing. Slowly though I started to feel more confident teaching and started to enjoy it much more. In the evening we had a sing a long. In the school during a normal school year all the younger grades are taught English via music, so for the evening they played these songs and the kids sang along. In all it was a fun evening and was much better than Bingo for the younger kids.

Tuesday, backwards day, Backwards day literally meant we were doing everything backwards, the kids had supper in the morning and breakfast in the evening, the evening activity was done in the morning and teaching in the evening, we turned desks backwards and most of us even wore our clothes either backwards or inside out! It was fun but annoying. This was all because we had a big scavanger hunt around the whole school and you can't do that in the dark! It took around two hours and was completely excausting! There were 10 clues to do, places to find and challangers to conquer. This involved running from one side of the school back to the middle and then the other side 10times and the teacher would send me back to the middle running with two kids and the completed card while everyone else walked, I was dead! The kids did amazingly well but it was so hot and they were all complaining about it then we had to teach after lunch. Teaching in the afternoon was hardwork the kids were quite tired from such a fun morning so after dinner when I had to teach my homeroom again we headed over to the library to read some English books, we also had the shop to visit. Every class got to visit the shop once, each child had some pretend money and could buy something. It was great and that really put an end to the lesson as they now all had new toys to play with.

Wednesday, Yangzhou trip and dinner, In the morning we taught our homeroom as per normal and went to cartoon lessons. This really only involved copying funny looking pictures of heads and reading comic books but the kids seemed to enjoy it. For the afternoon we had been given a few options and we chose to head down 'Old Street' the volunteers took us, the street is beautiful and long and of course some people love shopping! Fran and myself won't too into the shopping so we walked on ahead, it was a very hot day and just as we got to the end they said now we had to turn around and walk all the way back to go to the guesthouse for dinner. In the end we walked down a different road by the side of the canal which was beautiful but unfortunately we ran out of time and had to jump in a taxi to get to the guesthouse. We were just expecting to be going to a normal guesthouse but the taxi arrived at this grand hotel which was amazing, after dropping us off we caught up with some of the other teachers and the hotel staff took us around to the restaurant in a golf cart. We were very impressed but not dressed for it at all, we had no idea where we were going and were mostly in shorts and t-shirts. Getting to the restaurant we met up with the other staff and felt even more out of place, it was a top end hotel and we were in shorts and t-shirts and hadn't even had a shower! We were shown into the buffet restaurant and of course the best seats feeling even more out of place. But really the buffet was amazingly delicious and you couldn't possibly just taste a little of everything there was just too much. Moving after was definately a challange!

Thursday, Wet and wild, Again we were to only teach in the morning as during the afternoon it was Wet and Wild fun time! We had games for the younger and for the older kids and at each game there were two International Teachers. Josh and myself were in-charge of the sponge race. Basically two teams came and played against each other to fill up a bucket of water while walking with a wet sponge on their heads. The teachers are so competitive it gets annoying but it was good fun and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Josh even bought us water pistols and the teachers were trying to take them from us, but everyone got wet and had a fun filled afternoon. We then had to get dried and changed ready for dinner and another game of Bingo, which went remarkably better than the first one.

Friday, Nanjing, For the teachers that wanted to go we had the option of going to Nanjing for the day, they took us along with a few volunteers to show us around on the bus for the 90minute drive. Our first stop was the Monuleium and we took a tourist bus from the bottom of the hill to the bottom of the steps and entrance gate. We all planned to meet up at the bottom and headed up in smaller groups, I walked up with Marcus and learn't all about the Chinese Resolution! Something I knew absolutely nothing about. There was a great view from the top and it was nice to see such an important monument in China's history. They then took us to what they called a market but it wasn't a market and it was extremely hot to be walking around so we walked over to the shopping centre, found Costa Coffee and sat down. We sat until we had to move to go meet everyone else then we moved. After having difficulty getting back to the bus we didn't arrive back in Yangzhou until 730. Some had bought pizza in Nanjing but Shirwa, Marcus and myself hadn't so we got dropped in the city center and we ate pizza hut, McD's and KFC respectively! We took them back to the hotel and not long after arriving there was an earthquake, our room was on the 16th floor. I knocked on Shirwa's room and we headed downstairs but had to go back for his pizza, then we met Marcus and the others downstairs and Marcus had to go back for his McD's! Got to get your priorities right in these times!

Saturday, Talent show, The first full week was over, it had gone amazingly quick but it had and I felt like I had only taught a hand full of lessons, but it had been great fun and soon it would all be over, one week countdown until home. I had given Sophie the song that I wanted to do for skit night and as I walked in the classroom in the morning all the children started singing it, it was so cute and they had learnt it so well while we were in Nanjing. I then taught them all the actions to it and they looked even cuter! In the evening it was the talent show and all the students who wanted to do something could, some of the teachers made all of their students perform a dance or song but there were some great individual piano and singing performances. After a mix up on of the students from my homeroom class did manage to play the piano which was great. Some of them have so much talent but I dread to think how much time their parents make them practice everyday for.

Sunday, Halloween night, We had to make halloween masks in the morning with our homeroom class, my teacher and students had said they were too young and wouldn't be able to do it, again. But anyway they coloured paper plates in and Sophie and myself made the holes and stapled the string to them while they watched a cartoon on halloween in English : ) In the evening we had a haunted halloween house and the International teachers were in it. First the kids were taken to the juice and popcorn room before going through the haunted house. Marc, Carlos and myself were in one of the end rooms. Marc was a desk grabber, Carlos a mummy and myself a statue, I loved it! It was awesome, we got to scare the kids! It didn't take too long and for the younger one's it was still a little light but after sunset it was even better as they couldn't see Marc anymore. You could here them all screaming as they were walking up the corridors, I think overall though they all really enjoyed it too.

Monday, Zoo trip, In one word the zoo trip was actually horrible. We were taken from the hotel to the zoo, a zoo in China. We had to stay with our homeroom class, the first stop was the seal show which was ok ish, what you expect from a seal show. The next stop was an animal show which was horrific, there were performing dogs, tigers and bears which all looked ill and badly treated. Lots of the kids wanted photos taken with the tiger while it was chained tightly to a table and really the whole performace wasn't nice to watch. But it had to be done so that was that. Everyone had McD's for lunch but we were given it at breakfast time so after eating my burger I didn't really want to save cold fries but the kids had brought so much food and just kept feeding it to me it was crazy. It was hot and they didn't want to walk and walk around a zoo so as the bus was collecting everyone at 2pm we sat around the picnic area for a hour and a half then move to sit by the gate and wait for the bus for a further hour and a half. It was boring and hot, we then returned to the school and waited for all the teachers so that we could head back to the hotel to relax. After been in the sun for so long all I wanted to do was shower and sleep.

Tuesday, Skit night 1, All rotation classes had now finished and we had to spend some time getting our skits practised perfect. Mine were doing an April Fools day song along with a dance. Amazingly after been to the zoo the kids had been practicing the dance, it wasn't a simple dance and they were doing great. We had the opportunity to go to the ordatorium to practice and spent a lot of time in class practicing. After lunch I had to quickly cut out masks of bears, cows and birds for all the kids and attach elastic to them. In the evening when they got on stage and did it I was so proud of them, they did so well and all sang in English! It was so cute too. We also had clay classes during the morning and Josh and myself made sculptures to put on display, they were great and the kids were so impressed with us they kept taking them to show the teacher bless.

Wednesday, Last day with my kiddies, Josh and myself had decided to join our classes together for the afternoon and do some games like a mini olympics, it was going to be fun! We had planned to do between 6 and 9 games depending on time available and spent the morning testing the kids on the topics and playing some of the games so they were familiar with them. Then after lunch we split the kids up and the games begun. It was great fun and the kids did well, it showed that we had actually taught them something. We only managed to play 6 games but then after working out who had won first place etc we did an awards ceremony and everyone recieved prizes. The kids loved it and it was a nice way to end the time with them. In the evening we watched the skits performed by the 10 older classes. Over all the kids did some amazing skits and we were all so proud of them!

Thursday, Closing ceremony, It was the very last day and everything finished at lunch. I didn't see my class for long in the classroom but long enough to give them all their gifts. They then spent the rest of the time before the ceremony playing with the bouncy balls and we quickly practiced our cheers again ready to present them again. The closing ceremony was nice and many of the students recieved awards for their efforts, the internation and national teachers and student volunteers recieved gifts. Each class did their cheer again and a couple did performances on stage that were great and everyone joined in dancing. Many of the parents came and the hall was full. At the end all of the international staff went on stage to say a joint goodbyw to everyone and officially end the camp. After we ate a buffet dinner with the staff and volunteers, a final goodbye and then back to the hotel to pack for our early bus the next morning. In the evening Shirwa and myself went out to the same restaurant we had been to the very first night. We got exactly what we wanted to eat through drawing pictures and miming : ) and it was delicious too. Then that we it summer camp was over and we said our goodbyes to those who weren't taking the bus to Shanghai the following morning.

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