Blogs from Shaanxi, China, Asia - page 98

These children have no shame. They are always willing to get up in front of the class and sing or dance. One girl, when asked what makes her happy, answered that “Singing ‘Country Road’ makes me happy”, she then proceeded to stand in front of 47 other 9 year olds and sing it from beginning to end, glaring at one boy who had the audacity to turn to another child during one verse. There was no applause afterwards, as there never is, she just sat down, and the class moved on. I think the biggest thing I am having difficulty with it the difference of the schooling system. I am managing to keep most classes under control, there are two or three little chants that they know, you say ‘one, two three’, and clap your hands, ... read more

Two days of walking around with fully-grown American and English made me forget that I am in fact a giantess. Half past eight in the morning, standing at the back of rows and rows of children and teachers brought the reality back. I am teaching first grade, six and seven year olds, who could easily pass for three or four, bundled up in so many layers of clothes that their arms stick out at right angles to their bodies. The teachers all look about sixteen. I was introduced to all the first grade teachers, then all the English teachers, about fifteen in total. Nope, I can’t remember their names, apart from two who had chosen English names for themselves as well, Nancy and Mary. If they wear different clothes tomorrow, I’m stuffed. The first lesson was ... read more

Valentine’s Day is pretty big here, one of the girls in the office got a big bunch of red roses, which caused all of them to giggle all day. Another exhausting morning being manhandled by miniature people, and being thrown up in front of two classes, completely unprepared. We sang “head, shoulders, knees and toes”, and “B-I-N-G-O”, and asked the colours of every single item of clothing in the classroom - I just couldn’t think of anything else, and the two classes were basic English, not the Immersion classes. On the way back to the apartment, Jun - the teacher who drives me to scholl - passed me a piece of paper on which was written the Chinese and English for Valentine’s Day. I nodded enthusiastically, as I am wont to do when Jun tries to ... read more

We made a quick pit stop in Xian to see the famous terracota warriors, touted by the Chinese as the eighth wonder of the world, they were indeed very impressive; the pictures do not do them justice. Commissioned two thousand years ago by the first chinese emporer to protect himself in his afterlife, the six thousand life size warriors stand in battle formation each with unique physique, dress, and weapons ready to fend off evil spirits. With an interesting humanist philosophy the benevolent emperor had all contributing artisans (there must have been thousands) silenced permanently in order to keep his underground army a secret; which it was, until twenty years ago when a serendipitous peasant sinking a well discovered the wonder. Xian itslef was mildly interesting. The thirty kilometres of restored city wall with intermitent guard ... read more

On Tuesday we were going to leave for a three night trip to Xi'an. Getting there, however, proved to be more of an adventure than we expected. The plan was to meet at 8:30 AM in the Beijing International Hotel lobby. The plan was to catch the shuttle bus from the hotel to the airport at 9:00. Get to the airport in 40 minutes and have pleanty of time before the flight at 10:50. However, after 8:30, nothing went to plan. Hans gets me to the Hotel by 8:30, everyone else makes it before 8:35. The group goes through a checklist; unfortunatly, we find out that a couple people (Jill, Elliot and I) forgot his/her passport. We scramble for phones and numbers to try and contact our host parents so that they might be able ... read more