5 Weeks of Teaching 1 Week Vacation

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Today is the second day of my 1 week break. October first is celebrated as the first day of the People's Republic of China, and this year is the 60th anniversary. Some of you may have seen huge parades in Beijing on the evening news. So in celebration of this we are off school for 1 week.

Later today I will be flying with a few other teachers to Shanghai. I should have some good stories and experiences to report on my return.

For the past 5 weeks I have been teaching. It is a continual balancing act of keeping all the students involved in class. Well those who want to learn. As in any classroom, there are a few students who seem to simply refuse to pay attention or dedicate any effort into learning. In addition to these regular teaching challenges, my students also have different levels of english comprehension. Some of them are taking the same english classes for the 2nd or 3rd time.Last night I finished grading the midterm exam from my second class....the scores ranged from 53 out of 54 to about 13 out of 54. One of the best student knew exactly how many and which question she missed. I was amazed.

I would like to share some of the differences about daily life here. A great deal of it is getting to be routine and seem normal too me. Here are a few of that still stand out:

Normal Construction Site Hours: Anytime there is enough light outside, this starts at 6AM or so. Then at night if lights are available work will continune until midnight. Unless it is road paving behind my apartment. In that case it can continue through the night.

Manual Labor: There is a great deal of construction around the college campus and throughout the city. Any task which can successfully be accomplished by a person with simple hand tools is done this way. There is a restaurant on the third floor of the student dining hall. The food is fantastic and the operators are an old couple. They are so friendly and try very hard to understand what we want. All the rice, meat, beer, everything is carried up 3 flights by workers. The heaviest thing I have seen delivered so far was 60 glass beer bottles in plastic crates. The man carried this on his back. Most digging is also completed by hand. A few different times I have seen men dig ditches by hand for 100 yards or more. When you consider the size of the available workforce is 1,400,000,000 it really makes sense.

Chinese Food: Eating with chopsticks seems completely normal now, but some of the food is very different. I have seen but not eaten, chicken feet and chicken heads. There is a dish called blood pudding which I ate. It tasted rather bland. Later on found out it was made of pigs blood which was solidified a little. I don't think I will be eating that again.

It is 6:30 here and I am headed out for some last minute shopping to Wal*Mart and then I will pack. We leave for the airport at noon and should arrive in shanghai around 6:30 tonight.

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Comments

[Doris]

wow
Hi John, I'm so happy to hear from you. Have a great time on your week off. Love, Aunt Doris

[aunt t]

hard work!
I saw the celebrations yesterday morning- thought of you, of course! I was watching for you in the crowd-so few people, figured you would stand out, eh? I talked to aunt B for about an hour yesterday- she is in "no job shock" -

[Elsa]

Blood
So it has taken me a while to read your blogs if you haven't notice by my delayed comments, forgive me haha. Solidified pigs blood sounds awful. I am pretty sure I told you about the grossest thing I ate this summer. If you don't remember it was everything in a pig (could have been a cow and chicken too) but the normal meet. Intestines, organs, and blood. Yummmm. Nastiest thing I have ever tasted, and of course it was in a place where I had to be respectful and not puke. I would not suggest eating anymore pigs blood. haha