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Published: July 17th 2009
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The look on her face was priceless. She looked at her classmates wondering if I was serious or joking. Yes, we were having class on a Ferris Wheel today. No, there was no hidden camera, this was not a joke. I wish I had teachers that broke the rules when I was in school. I understand that education has a goal, and forgive me for using my blog to voice my opinions but I learned so much more by doing rather than being lectured to. And that is the approach I am trying to take with my older students. When we got to the park she still thought I was joking, I don't think she believed me until we were at the top.
"We're really on a Ferris Wheel."
Yes, dear. Yes we are.
Since class started we've been taking field trips once or twice a week in the afternoons. The highlight was, of course, bumper cars. I've never seen my students so excited about anything. It was a blast! And, as the only one with a drivers license I thought I would have an unfair advantage. Instead Li Si Qi, Jaycee and Gao Chang ganged up on
me. When the time was up the owner let us go twice more for free because I was a foreigner (ah yes).
The last time he even jumped in a car and chased me around. He had a lot of practice... he hit really hard. Apparently, if you throw all your body weight when you hit the other car it will go spinning (Read: I went spinning). But it was a lot of fun. Afterwords we got ice cream and headed back to school. For the record, the Chinese just drive around, they don't try and hit each other too much. But when I got in a car they all started chasing me...
On Wednesday we went to Er Tai and rode the Ferris wheel. The wheel itself must be 60-80 meters, it was gigantic and gave great views of the city. I really like Er Tai, it's a small Amusement Park in northern Hohhot. It's smaller than the other downtown parks and less crowded. We walked around, got some more ice cream (this is becoming a trend) and talked. A good class. One of my favorites.
Unfortunately though, I'm spoiling my students. They are starting to
expect field trips. On Tuesday night we're going to go see Transformers 2 (outside of class, just as friends). I'm so excited! One of my students has already bought Harry Potter 6 on DVD. I'm hoping she can get me a copy, I want to see it! I need to come up with a field trip for next Wednesday. On Tuesday I am giving an exam and I think they could use a little relaxation. This class is intense, it's twice a day, five days a week, for three hours. Lots of work for them, and me.
Ma Tou Qin lessons are going well, but it's really hard, and I'm really bad. But I'm getting better and should practice more. Apparently my teacher's teacher is this amazing guy. I'm so lucky that Jessi introduced us. At the end of the month I'm going to decide if I'm going to keep going and buy my own Qin or not. I haven't decided, any thoughts are appreciated.
I'm a good foreigner, whatever that means.
-Kaye
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