Setting up the program

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Monday -- Visiting the Teacher Training Center our site. Setting up the materials for the program. Meeting one of the local teacher volunteers.

After a very long and tiring trip on Sunday we settled into our rooms at Lin Xian Hotel. I actually changed rooms the following day to a room across the hall that smells a little better and has more light and no leaky toilet, although the sink pipes are leaking...I guess you can't have everything. There is not so much noise on this side for some reason. Maybe it's because I didn't open the window -- but this room does face the parking lot so if there is a party, e.g., a wedding there is more commotion outside the window. On Monday afternoon there was a huge wedding with so many firecrackers going off under the window. It was quite the spectacle. The restaurant where we eat is huge, and the food is delicious. There is no comparison with last year's restaurant in Shiloh, which was quite small and not so sophisticated. Apparently the Prime Minister or another high-ranking official just visited Lin Xian last month and stayed in this hotel and ate in the restaurant. This city is amazingly well developed compared to Shiloh. The streets are paved with sidewalks -- although the sidewalk disappears at some point. A new walkway of concrete has just been paved along the river and there seem to be some plans to plant trees along the wall to create a type of promenade. There are plenty of shops with T-shirts, fancy shoes, slacks, and other modern contemporary clothes. There is a huge plaza across from our hotel where people gather in the late afternoon. There is also a dry cleaner/laundry across the street and we've viisted 2 supermarkets that carry a variety of goods. I visited a tea shop this afternoon to buy some pu'ar tea, which I have been drinking for the last year. It's very good for the circulation and skin, apparently, both of which I need. There is supposed to be a karoke bar on this street but I didn't see it. We walked through the fruit and vegetable market to get to the supermarket and I found another tailor on the street to repair my Bass sandal. Again this summer I brought these Bass sandals to China and they are just falling apart. the cobbler on the street sewed it up and glued it for 70 cents.

We bought 6 bananas for 4.5 yuan about 90cents. Very sweet. Not sure where they come from. The family of the poet that lived with Judy brought her an entire case of peaches and we have been feasting on those for the last few days as well.

The mornings there is a buffet here at the restaurant. I get there around 8 am and by that time most of the food is gone. Today I managed to get downstairs a bit earlier and got some tofu and a vegetable...neither of which were still available the other 2 days. I guess the main thing to remember is to get there early. Lunch was ordered by Liulei and was kind of meat heavy. We did have 2 dishes -- one with a very very salty hot plate of grated mushrooms and the other of bokchoy drowned in soy sauce. It's been a heavily salted first week. I'm hoping that the pu'ar tea with help me cleanse the sodium....

In the supermarket I found a French-press style coffee pot and we have a tea pot in our room -- an electric teapot that heats the water to boiling in a minute or two. I can make a delicious 2 cups of coffee each morning -- not filled with dregs -- and I managed to get some coffeemate (which I usually don't use but it doesn't seem as sweet as the regular kind).

I have been practicing my Chinese alone...not really speaking with anyone. Somehow I can't find the words that I need in my brain when I need them. There is a really problem accessing the vocabulary and I'm not sure how I'm going to reach the point at which I'll be able to do that. I can recognize some words when I'm lilstening the CD or reading and writing -- practicing writing/copying the characters but I don't seem to be able to categorize expressions and words appropriately so that I have ready access later for communicative purposes. I'm not sure whether it's early senility,, just my own lack of linguistic aptitude dating from some genetic source or whether I just haven't put the time and energy into the process -- or maybe it's also my personality. I find it hard to speak in English often embarrassed or shy so it's not easy to speak up iin another language when I know I'm making so many mistakes.

On Monday after we set up the office we pretty much chilled. I've been working on my Chinese, working on my online course -- I had to finish grading a set of papers and then submit the midterm grades. I worked until about 1 in the morning or later and then decided to go to sleep and get up at 6 am to submit the final grades. We're exactly 12 hours ahead of NYC so it would be 6 pm NY time -- the grades were due at midnight.

I did manage to get those grades done and get this week's assignments set up and then Tuesday we were taken first to the middle school to meet with some teachers (5 in all) who are being asked to participate in the program. We asked them what they do, who they teach and what they would like to work on. One of the teachers spoke English very well. He has been teaching for about 20 years and he told us a great deal about his class and what the teachers need.

In the afternoon we visited the high school and spoke with about 15 teachers -- most of them spoke very well and had very clear ideas about what they need and want to do to improve their teaching and the students' learning. I was so excited about the prospec tof working with them and then they announced that they were all starting to teach summer school in 2 days and couldn't possibly participate in our program which will require a full-day commitment for 1 month. Most of them will not be able to attend I fear.

Today we have spent planning our schedue, preparing hand-out with the academic calendar and the goals of the program, creating a PPT for the opening ceremony, looking at the materials and orienting the assistants to the materials that we have. In the late afternoon we walked around the town.

There was just a thunderstorm so things have cooled down...and now it's dark outside, around 8:30 pm. Liulei and the girls went out to a restaurant to have dinner at a hot pot...I didn't really want to and Judy is still recuperating.

I've got a lot to do to prepare and have work to do on the online course as well.

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