The Beginning of School and The Start to My Weekend

So far I have had three full days of school at the Luhe International School of Beijing and let me tell you, it's been fairly chaotic. I teach four different classes: two pre-IELTS, one intermediate IELTS and one advanced IELTS. IELTS is a type of entrance exam (like TOEFL or SAT) used to assess foreign students entering into university, mostly in the UK and Europe, and my job is to prepare these students to be able to ace it. It is fairly challenging, but excessively challenging for individuals where their first language is not English. Students have the option of entering the program I teach to prepare them for the test they would most certainly fail straight out of the Chinese education system.

Most of my students did not receive their books until Friday, so I was bringing in all of my own material to assess them. I expected that; my experience in Peru has taught me that foreign schools are generally disorganized under the surface and you just got to go with the flow. They are expecting me to run through one unit every nine lessons, which is a HUGE task for children at this level of English ability. It's basically two chapters every three weeks. I have NO idea how I am going to do it.

The kids like me. I am a young, white (in a non-white area), happy teacher who likes playing games. And I'm pretty sure the blue eyes and big boobs help. Already I have had a group of girl tell me I have beautiful eyes while giggling nervously, and my last class all the children spent their break asking me about my tattoos and taking pictures of me on their cell phones and cameras. They are INCREDIBLY quiet and well behaved; it scares me! The Chinese education system is all about self-discipline and control, and I, as a teacher and a person, definitely am NOT. I love playing tons of games to get the kids excited about what they are learning (always a challenge with English) and you can tell these kids have NEVER had that before. On the first day I had to give them a diagnostic test, and I was MORTIFIED that they were meeting me like that. The kids, however, were used to it and didn't care. It's so backward to what I'm used to.

Things here are generally backward. My house is officially WORKING in all capacities but it took a million years and a day to get it to happen, plus a few... sorry, four a day very angry and frustrated phone calls to my assistant. "Can you call the landlord? Okay can you call her now? Okay how about now?" Emilie and Tom had an absolute mission trying to get their things back from customs yesterday: Emilie shipped some things from her home in the UK and they didn't want to release them without her paying duty on them even though they were obviously her used goods and she shouldn't have to. They were there from 8am until 8pm sorting this business out. Shannon and Damon are still living at the school without an apartment because you have to pay six months rent UPFRONT for a place and the school/landlord for the place they want have been jumping around the issue of the loan. Luckily, my issues have been relatively minor in terms of settling in - the internet issue drove me INSANE until it was somehow fixed this morning. All that's left is finding a new showerhead, but that can wait as this one works but is just a little wonky.

This weekend is a big weekend! Yesterday night after class I went out with Shannon and Damon again to a Korean BBQ restaurant. It was pretty intense; it was a coal barbeque with a huge suction thing over it to get rid of the smoke. We ordered wayyyy too much food: bbq short ribs, shrimp and cashews, marinated tofu, fried rice, tempura (which they brought out with KETCHUP... how weird is that???). It was all fantastic. Of course, the logical step after dinner was to drink excessively, so afterwards we went back to my place and tanked a bottle of vodka and some disgusting cheap white wine. We stayed in Tongzhou (the suburb where I live) because its a little bit of a while to get to the bar district and we were all tired from our first week at work. This morning I am meeting up with Emilie and Tom to go and sign up for a gym they found - 1599yen for a year... which is just under 300CDN. Later in the day I'll be heading into the center of Beijing to meet up with a friend of my mother's, who works at the Beijing office of their company and has graciously invited me out for dinner with him and his family. Afterwards, I'm to meet up with Emilie and Tom and hit the club scene (can't WAIT). I suspect Sunday will be the funniest day as I'm joining a group called the Hash.. more on them later.

Enjoy your weekend!!