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Published: February 28th 2011
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Well my first full week in Wuhan was fun and very tiring. School started Monday; I teach 2 Drama 10 classes, Marketing 11, and Planning 10. Marketing and Planning have been really easy so far because so much of the material was already planned for me and the teachers are really collaborative. Drama has been more challenging though; the first day I spent most of the first class wondering if anyone understand a word I was saying because all I got were blank faces when I tried to explain what we were going to do for the class. Turns out they understand about half of everything I say and I got told by some students that I talk too fast, so that's something to work on. This week all we did was play games in drama; how knew duck, duck, goose would be so popular? We must have played in for half the class, actually they really like any game where they have to chase each other. My students are all really sweet and nice. It's quite the change from the kids I taught in Calgary. They always so Good Morning and Good Afternoon as they come into class and Goodbye,
See you tomorrow when they leave. When they run into me in the hallways they always say hi. The only discipline-ish problems I have are kids sleeping in class and cell phones. I don't really blame them for falling asleep in class, they have very long days; up by 6 am, have class until 3:40, extracurricular time until 5, dinner until 6, then study time until 9 (or later). (Plus my classes haven't been all that interesting yet).
Last week I ventured out on my own to find a market. There is one that is about a 20 minute walk from the school. I ended up spending about 200 RMB, because I found a lot of stuff that I needed for my apartment, and a bottle of wine was about 50 RMB, plus some fruit and veggies. On Wednesday Mandy, one of the other teachers, took all of us newbies out for Chinese street food. We had barbeque and it was sooo good. We had beef skewers, lamb skewers, eggplant, mushrooms, potatoes, corn, and bread, and I think some other stuff too. For all of that and 2 beers each it was 25 RMB, so super cheap. That was pretty
much it for the week, the rest of the time was spent planning or sleeping.
On Saturday the school arranged for a shopping bus (they do that every Wed and Sat) to go to Tailor Street and the Metro. Tailor street is really cool. It is full of fabric shops and seamstresses. I decided to get a nice coat made. For all the fabric and work it is going to cost me about 830 RMB which is about $130. So I think that's a great deal for a coat tailored just for me. I should get in 2 weeks so I'm really excited about it. If it turns out nice (which I'm sure it will) I'll probably get a nice dress or something made when it gets nicer out. It has been so cold over the last few days, although I read that it was -30 in Edmonton last week so I guess I shouldn't complain. On Saturday night it was another teacher's birthday so there was a party at his place. I didn't last very long so I'm hoping to get some partying in this weekend.
Sunday I decided to see if I could make it to Lo shon
Dragon
You see these everywhere and back by myself (Lo shon is a big mall that's about 20 minutes away but taxi). I took the bus there. It was the most crowded thing I've ever been on, there was no room to move around, I didn't even have to hold on to anything because I couldn't move anyway. One thing I probably should've learnt before getting on the bus was how to tell the driver when I wanted to get off. So after a long hot bus ride I was let out about 3 blocks from the mall. The mall is pretty big. It's really pretty at night because everything is lit up (I will try and get some pictures). I went to the mall to get dvd's and a hair straightener (which has been impossible to find). After walking around the mall for about 45 minutes I finally found the dvd store all the teachers were talking about. I bought 4 movies and 2 seasons of TV for 100 RMB. I decided not to take the bus back (mostly because I had no idea what bus to take back or where to catch it) so I took a cab. I waved down 3 cabs
Pretty Building
Drove past this on our way to the visa office which all got stolen from me, so I finally decided to steal someone else's cab. The ride home was by far the scariest cab ride I've had in China, I wish I would've taped it to show everyone. The entire time I thought the driver was going to kill someone; he drove on the wrong side of the road, passing people in really narrow streets that are surrounded by people walking while going 70 km/h, running red lights. I thought I was going to die, luckily I made it home ok! I was very proud of myself for getting to the mall and back by myself.
Tonight we are going to Stone Pond for dinner, it should be good! Well I think that's it for now, I'll write more soon!
I learnt two things this week:
1. "Ting Bo Dong" - I don't understand
2. Even if your walking on the sidewald, a car still has the right of way
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Lindsay
non-member comment
yo!
i totally enjoy reading these ha ha.....i love the confused chinese guy...'how you must look' ha ha! Its neat to hear the kids are all so nice, I mean, obviously manners are more important there, and the crazy structure of their day! The drivng sounds hilarious!! I would have loved to see you (who drives like miss daisy :)) in the back of that car ha ha. ANyways, sounds like you are enjoying yourself, which is nice, and there seems to be a ton of people to hang out with, so hopefully you will come back with cool international friends that you can go visit!!! have fun, keep with the updates!