It has been a strange week of teaching with many cancelled classes, but we are making up for it by helping out with new student testing on Saturday. Since the school is private, students must test in before they enter first grade. A few of the English teachers are arranging activities to keep children happy before and after testing.
Since I don't have much to update I will just give a rundown on a typical day of teaching here. Frances and I wake up around 6 before the students are up and sneak out to go running/exercising. There is a canal near our school that is the hot spot for the senior citizens of Hangzhou. There are many interesting morning workouts going on including tai chi, working out on exercise equipment provided by the government in various locations along the canal, even a very wonderful lady who gets all worked up then bends back then forward then yells at the top of her lungs. But our running is evidently not the standard exercise and we get very strange glances as we trot down the path.
After our run we come back to the school and grab school breakfast which is usually some sort of hard boiled egg (usually cooked in vinegar), and bun of some sort either filled with meat or seaweed or red bean paste. Then it is up to our rooms to shower and get ready for class. This is the prime time to talk to people back home because it is evening in Montana.
I either have class starting at 8:10 or 10:10. I walk to the middle school campus which is about 10 minutes away (depending on traffic, and yes there is traffic I have to deal with even while walking). I teach usually all morning then Frances and I meet at a local dumpling shop for some soup that costs about $2. Then either back to my room to work for the afternoon or back to the middle school to teach some more.
I try to take a little nap in the afternoon. If we have a free night, Frances and I like to get out and have dinner at one of our favorite places. Even though food is served at the school, life gets really boring sleeping, working, and eating at one place. Food here is so cheap so eating out isn't a problem. Sometimes Frances and I have to do evening activity with the students which is a hour with the whole grade to either teach them a song (or in tonight's case we are watching Finding Nemo). Then it is back to our rooms for a little evening work out, reading, and lights out.
Days all run together during the week especially because I teach the same lesson around 12 times. My weekends are much more enjoyable and fun to write about. I am just a teacher in a middle school five days out of the week.
Even though I am still three weeks away from my return trip, I am starting to get eager to return. I've booked my hotel in Shanghai to stay in on Friday before my Saturday flight. I am also trying to figure out how to bring back the stuff I bought!!! As exciting and wonderful as this trip is, it really makes me appreciate Montana.
Here are some more pretty flowers from this weekend!
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