Before I talk about vacations and weekend trips and funny stories, I thought it might be good to explain the regular days. So if you want to read something interesting, this post isn't for you. This is a long, boring blog post about my schedule and everyday life. Mostly for myself to look back on, and for my parents (Hi guys) in case they're wondering what I'm doing.
Breakfast is from 6:45-7:30. There are cafeteria workers that stand behind a window who don't speak any English. There's always a few things to choose from. Most of it is bread.
The school where we teach is located right across the street from our apartments. Well, not across the street, really. More like across the sidewalk. There's a map somewhere in this post.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I walk over to the school at around 8:00 AM to mentally and physically prepare myself to teach the second graders at 8:30. I love them so much, but I'll make a post about that later.
The teachers rotate between which subjects we teach. I teach 4 of them. Gym and games, Arts and crafts, Kitchen, and Drama.
In gym and games, I've done things like 4 square, obstacle courses, minute to win it, and bowling. The kids get really into all of the games, its so cute but can get pretty chaotic.
In arts and crafts, we've made rain clouds, fans, and a bunch of other little crafts. Its so fun to let the kids get creative with it and express their personalities, so I have a lot of fun teaching it. It's challenging to keep it language-based instead of just working on the crafts, however.
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| Clouds! |
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| Pirate Ships! |
In drama, we play things like peter pan, where I sprinkle pixie dust (glitter) on them and we fly around, get in sword fights, act like pirates, and go for treasure hunts. This is a picture of Cindy, who kept asking me to sprinkle more and more glitter on her, and refused to let me wash it off when class ended. In drama, our story never stays very close to the actual story line and we just have to go with the flow. It's probably the hardest subject for me to teach.
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| You can't tell, but her face was covered in green pixie dust |
In kitchen we cook cute little snacks. Its tricky because you have to buy all your own ingredients to feed the kids, so it gets pretty expensive. You also only have about 25 minutes to help the kids make the snack. But its probably my favorite thing to teach. Some of the treats we've made includes: twinkie cars (you can't find twinkies in china- but you can find "yellow finger flavor cakes"). We've also made buttered green noodles, french toast, and chocolate dipped fruit kabobs. Side note: the fruit in china is SO yummy and SO cheap. I'm going to miss that for sure.
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| Yellow finger flavor cake car! |
There are 27 second graders, and they're split into 5 small classes. We all start the day with an opening activity, then split into our classes. Every 30 minutes, the students rotate, and after we've taught all 5 rotations, we gather back together for "closing ceremonies".
If the pollution isn't horrendous that day, they go out to the soccer field for "exercise" in between the second and third rotation. We never know if there will be exercise that day, until about 20 minutes before they have to go. They just blast music and do a choreographed exercise/ dance routine which is sometimes accompanied by a chant. Its very weird but so cute. Then, they come back for the rest of ILP.
Second Grade ends at 11:20, then it's lunch time. Its similar to breakfast, you point to 3 things you want to eat with your rice heap, and the people behind the window plop it onto your tray. There's different things to choose from every day. At first I thought the food was gross, but now I genuinely enjoy it. Lots of over-boiled, oily, sweet vegetables and mystery meat is pretty much the most accurate way to describe it. If nothing looks good, they have a little cafe thing with yogurts and milk tea and sometimes sandwiches and stuff.
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| A typical lunch |
After lunch, I usually go back and chill in my apartment (I'll typically clean up, lesson plan, or organize something) until I have to go back to school to teach grade 3 from 12:50 to 2:20. These students are SO MUCH CRAZIER than the second graders. Its super fun, but sometimes they drive me BONKERS. But again, I'll save that fun stuff for another post.
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| Cute third graders |
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I teach them math. Geometry, story problems, angles, graphing, telling time, and things like that are things we've been covering. It's not my favorite subject to teach because I basically just wing it, and I have no idea if I'm teaching them what they need to learn. But I try my best to make it fun for me by making it fun for them, haha.
I also have to create homework each day for the third graders. They don't have printers we can use, but they do have copy machines! So I just scribble something out on a half sheet of lined paper, and go to the copy center to make 28 of them. Maybe one day I'll post a picture of their homework.
So that's my teaching schedule. Then, I have meetings and classes throughout the week.
I have a "Chinese Class" on Wednesdays between lunch and grade 3, however our Chinese teacher, Echo, says teaching Chinese is boring. So instead, she tells us about random streets in Suzhou. I don't really like it, and I wish our Chinese teacher would teach us some Chinese. But instead I learn all about where I can buy wedding dresses and hot dogs!
We go to a Taiji class on Tuesdays between lunch and Grade 3. Its kind of like yoga, kind of like dancing, mostly like yoga. None of us know the Taiji teachers name, but it's definitely too late to ask. Whats-her-name teaches us the routine we will be preforming in front of the whole school at the end of the semester, so it's pretty important that we attend. But it's really hard to remember, and she keeps adding on more and more, so I'm getting a wee bit nervous. It's interesting being taught a routine by someone who knows very little English. She'll demonstrate what to do, and if we do it right she says "ah, yes" and if we do it wrong, shell grab us and move us the way she wants. This class is really relaxing and I actually love it a lot.
We have a group meeting with all 11 teachers from 6-7:30
On Wednesdays after teaching 3rd grade, the third grade teachers meet. It's just Sami, Lindsay, and I. We usually plan things for the end of year performance, and talk about what each person needs to work on to prepare for that.
End of year performance:
The school asked each grade to do a primary program-esque presentation where everyone says a line into the microphone, but then they requested the third graders do a skit instead.
At first the instructions we received were basically "Write us a skit, make it about differences between cultures. make it really creative and interesting for an audience that doesn't speak any English, while still showing off their English skills. We don't want it to have a plot, because that might be too hard to follow. we also don't want it to be a musical" So we started working on a skit following those guidelines. Then, the school changed their mind and was like "actually you can just do a 15 minute skit of Moana, but there can be no main characters, and all 28 kids need an even amount of stage time" so we had to practically re-write the movie to fit 28 kids. Because of these changes, we are WAY behind schedule. It's okay though, we still have a month to get it down.
That's pretty much my schedule. I'll talk about other regular things in my life now.
First, I'll talk about my apartment. All 11 of us live on the third floor, in the same hallway. Sami and I occupy room 307.
We have our own bathroom, microwave, and minifridge. It also has an air conditioner/ heater which is really nice. Our school doesn't have that luxury, and when we first got here it was freezing, so both the teachers and the students were bundled up.
Our beds are essentially box springs topped with a half inch thick foam pad given to us to put on top. I thought I'd be miserable, but I'm sleeping better than ever.
On the fourth (and final) floor, there are 2 small washing machines. They aren't the best, but they (sort of) get the job done. The dryer is broken, so we hang dry our clothes.
There is also a kitchen area upstairs that has a hot plate and a bajillion toaster ovens. Like. There are so many toaster ovens. No regular ovens, though. We've had a surprise birthday party for Nisha up there, where we all pitched in to get her a little bamboo gift and some treats. We've also had a couple of "family dinners" there. On the fourth floor there is also access to the roof. I really like to go out there and soak up the sun and wind while I work on lesson plans.
Our school is similar to a campus. Except there's only one way out, and its a gate guarded by security guards. But they pretty much let anyone in or out without questioning them, so I'm not sure what their purpose is. We just say "Nihao", they open the gate, and we say "Shi Shi".
In the center of campus is a soccer field with a track around it, and its surrounded by buildings. The ILP classrooms are on the second floor of our building, and we found out there are doors to the first floor on the other side. Behind those doors, there's like a zoo with a bunch of lizards and cats and sometimes there's a horse down there. Its usually locked but it's so random.
There's also a little convenience store that you can buy snacks at, which reminds me of a gas station. They have some pretty yummy things.
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| Red circle= Gate. Green Circle= My apartment. Purple circle= school. Orange circle= cafeteria/ convenience store. Blue circle= gym where we do Taiji. Yellow circle= copy room and chinese class are inside. |
Every night the frogs sing us to sleep.
There are always mosquitoes in our room.
City Life:
We ride the buses and subway everywhere. We all got special bus/subway cards that you can use instead of coins, which makes me feel like a real local! Mine says "Merry Christmas" on it, even though I got it in spring. I've discovered its always Christmas in china. Anyways, we've gotten pretty good at the public transportation thing.
The driving here is insane, and being a pedestrian is, too. They say that bus drivers are insured for 3 deaths per year. So yeah. When you cross a street, you kind of just have to go for it like the grandma with the lucky cricket in Mulan.
Speaking of lucky crickets, you can buy them in cute little cages on the streets here. You can also buy tiny pet turtles at any grocery store. They keep them in small plastic boxes with no water and its super sad. You can also buy slightly larger turtles to cook and eat at any grocery store. The meat sections are pretty gnarly. Lots of whole chickens (heads, shoulders, knees, and toes) and crazy looking fish. Here are some pictures:
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| Cricket cages |
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| Giant Cucumber! Jk, no idea what these are. |
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| The whole chicken |
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| or just the yummy part |
Mopeds are everywhere, and it great quantities. There's a separate mini road on the side of every regular road specifically built for them. They also all have weird alarm security systems. I swear they start blaring sirens if you so much as give them a dirty look. I hope I'll get to ride one before I get back!
I've gotten used to the honking. At first we'd be like "CALM DOWN" whenever we were honked at, but now we hardly notice.
I've gotten so used to being a celebrity. Jk, but people are constantly sneaking not-so-sneaky pictures of us with their selfie sticks, or asking us to take pictures with them, or with their child. They love white people here. I don't really like it but such is life.
There are oodles of stray cats and dogs on the streets. They are all so cute and friendly, but they just do their own thing and don't bother anyone. I love each and every one of them, especially the dogs.
China is also full of bubbles. There are bubbles floating around everywhere you go, and its pretty magical.
I'll finish off this post with something fun: The squatters. When we arrived, I took my first opportunity to use a squatter, because I was really excited to try it. I'm actually really good at it, and honestly prefer it now, at least for pee. Pooping is hard because there's not enough water in them, so you have to aim it perfectly or else it won't flush. Which is why public restrooms smell so bad. Not everyone aims perfectly, so there's poop everywhere. Our apartments have western toilets, but basically everywhere else is squatters. There's occasionally a handicap stall with a western toilet, but watch out: Sometimes, you'll have to pee so bad, you won't even look at the toilet seat. You'll just plop yourself down, and end up covered in pee because Chinese people don't know how to use western toilets. But it's not like that has ever happened to me or anything!
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| This is one of the cleanest and fanciest squatters I have found. Come with rushing, leave with flushing! |
There is usually no soap in public bathrooms. Hand sanitizer save live
In China the pipes are really small, so you can't flush toilet paper at all,ever, not even in our apartments. It backs the pipes up pretty bad. So at first I was really freaked out by it, but I'm completely accustomed to throwing away toilet paper instead of flushing it. So that's a gross habit I'll have to kick when I get back.
That's all I can think of to say.
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