Now onto the update part of the post!
Today is my 22nd day of living in China (though quite honestly, it feels like a lot longer).
I first arrived in China on Sunday August 26. I flew into Shanghai and spent a week living in a hotel at Shanghai JiaoTong University. It was a week-long orientation with CIEE (the program I used to get connected with a Chinese school). We spent the week sight-seeing around the city, listening to guest speakers talk about cultural differences living and working in China, receiving training about teaching English as a foreign language, and preparing lessons for the upcoming school year. I got to go to the 88th floor of the JinMao Tower (the tallest building in China), take a night cruise on the HuangPu River with a gorgeous view of the skyscrapers along Pudong and the Bund, visit the Shanghai Museum, wander around People's Square, and visit the Yuan Garden in the Old Quarters. One of the Chinese student helpers I met was named Apple (just like Gwenyth Paltrow's baby!). She told me that her friends gave her that name because when she was younger, she was chubby. While in Shanghai, I also got a chance to hang out with my good friend Amy, whom I met while I studied abroad in Beijing. She took me out to all the cool nightspots in Shanghai.
On Saturday September 1, I flew to Beijing with two other teachers. We arrived in Beijing and got whisked away by Joe, a representative from the school (It was the fastest airport pick-up I've ever experienced. It took less than a minute, literally). Next we arrived at Beijing International Studies University, which is technically in the ChaoYang District of Beijing, but is all the way out on the East 5th Ring Road (which pretty much means we're living out in the suburbs, and it takes us nearly an hour to get to the city center, since there's traffic all the time). All the teachers are living in the foreign exchange students dorm, but at least we get our own rooms and I have my own bathroom and kitchen.
I'm teaching for the Beijing World Exchange College of Language (WECL) which is a private school housed on the Beijing International Studies University (aka. Er Wai) and the Qinghua University continuation school campuses. So WECL is pretty much a 2 year English language intensive school for adults. Many of the students are college-aged students who take an extra 2 years to study English in order to pass a test to study in the U.S., or older adults who took time off work to improve their English, or adults who just take night/weekend classes while working. Since it's a private school, the classes are pretty small, only about 20 students each.
I started teaching last Tuesday, and I've got to say, teaching is really exhausting. So far I've only been teaching 10 hours a week and I've been stressing already. My full teaching load is still only 20 hours a week (I'll be teaching college exchange students from Inner Mongolia), but those students don't arrive until October. I have one class that I really love. But it's really frustrating when some students just have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about in class. Our school has an English immersion policy (which means I'm not supposed to speak Chinese in class), so it's really difficult for me to see the students struggle and not be able to just translate for them. I've noticed that outside of class it's hard for me to kick the "teacher-speak," ie. talking really slowly and loudly, enunciating everything, and using hand motions to act out what I'm saying.
Our school has provided us with text to teach (so at least I don't have to create an entire curriculum on my own), but in terms of how to deliver the material, it's completely up to each teacher. So I've been trying to incorporate fun activities, while working through the books as efficiently as possible. It's also really hard correcting the students written grammar and pronunciation. All the students are so eager to learn, but sometimes I just feel so bad correcting them (for fear of hurting their self-esteems) and then I just wonder where to begin (since their levels are so elementary).
After teaching for just a week, it's already gotten easier. I just wonder if it will ever get less tiring. I am planning to volunteer for an organization in the city, but I'm going to wait a few weeks, until my schedule gets settled. And I also need to buckle down and seriously start studying Chinese. I speak English so much (in class and with the other teachers) that my Chinese isn't just going to improve on its own.
Also, everywhere I go, I've been making an effort to talk to workers. I found out that the salespeople at Silk Street market work 12 hour days every day of the year and get only TWO DAYS off each year. A lot of them are from AnHui province and from other areas that aren't as wealthy as Beijing. Also, a woman that works in the dining hall on campus works more than 12 hours a day, every day. I need to start talking to the taxi cab drivers, because apparently they are overworked and underpaid as well. I just need to work up the courage, since most of the time I can't understand their accents.
I will update later on the drama that has been going on with my school and the other juicy stuff. This is just a start.
Now for some pictures!
Here I am at the Yuan Gardens in the Old Quarters in Shanghai (The "Old Quarters" is pretty much a big shopping center that is designed to look all "ancient," when in fact there is a Starbucks, Dairy Queen, and Haagen Daz in the complex. And there's a really famous xiaolong bao restaurant too, which is always crowded.)
My most favorite dish to eat here in China. Lamb kabobs with spices from XinJiang. These meat skewers are the reason I started eating meat again here in China (though when I get back to the States, it'll be back to pescetarianism for me). This pic was taken at a Uyghur restaurant in Shanghai, with dance performances and everything!
This is the gorgeous Shanghai skyline. I took this picture during our night cruise on the HuangPu River. Our ship was super fancy. It was a clear, crisp evening, perfect for sitting out on deck.
The building on the left is the JinMao Tower in Shanghai (China's tallest building). On the right, they are building China's next tallest building. When we went to the 88th floor of the JinMao Tower (the observation deck), we could see all the construction workers on the top level of the building next door.
While Michele and I were wandering around Shanghai's People's Square, we came across a Madame Toussaud's wax museum. Of course we had to take a picture with Yao Ming in the lobby. He has a bouquet of roses because apparently he just got married (to a woman who's probably the same size as me).
Outside the Forbidden City in Beijing. Mao is looking as spiffy as ever.
There is construction everywhere in Beijing (and now it's in overdrive for the Olympics). This is in WangFuJing. There used to be a big building at this site, and now it's all gone. I bet they're building another shopping center in its place. The construction workers in Beijing are typically migrant workers from poorer, rural areas; and they usually sleep and eat at the construction site. What a life.
This is the Bank of China across the street from the Silk Market. I was here for three hours, waiting to cash just $100 USD in traveler's checks (if I had known it would take this long, I would've brought more checks with me). So not worth it. Sometimes things in China are so inefficient, it's completely mindblowing. There were only 2 tellers serving the 60+ people waiting. Why didn't I just go to a different bank with fewer people? Well, you can only cash traveler's checks at Bank of China branches. Greeeat.
A night out with the other teachers at a tapas place called Bed. Tapas! in China! Amazing! Their mojitos were absolutely delicious.
The teaching gang at the famous Beijing Duck restaurant, QuanJuDe, on WangFuJing Street.I promise to update soon with more details and more pictures!
