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Hey peops, hope everything at home is fine and dandy with you! I feel a little out of the loop here, as the internet is so scarce - Cornwall could actually have become its own country, and I would be none the wiser! lol.
Things are still grand here, I had a four day weekend last weekend, and only worked 3 days this week as I effectively have every Friday off anywho~!! So can't complain!! So I've had some time off to explore and chillax. Me and Katie checked out the Temple of Heaven Park, which was beautiful and we also went to the Panjiayuan Market (nicknamed the Dirt Cheap Market) which specialises in Chinese art, antiques, china etc... It really was absolutely huge, and overwhelming. We came away with very little, as we loved it all!! Will definitely go back, when we have been paid and buy lots of Chinese artefacts to take home with us.
A few new thoughts:
TOILETS: China has mostly Asian style loos (hole in the floor type) and very few public toilets are western style (sit down toilets). My apartment has a "normal" aka : western toilet but at the school its the squat stylee. So my calf muscles are getting a very good workout! lol! A funny thing happened the other day, I was over in the Chinese Primary section of the school and I asked for the W.C - which (sometimes) they understand and she pointed me to a unisex children's toilet room, where they had no cubicles, just tiny holes on the floor, 1 western toilet and no partitions. The toilets were the tinniest holes known to man - The children are all 4 / 5 in this section. I asked the teaching assistant if this was the only bathroom , but she didn't understand me! haha! And I was so desperate that I decided to try my chances with the western toilet. However, my class had just ended so all my kids came running into the bathroom too!! And were greeted with the scene of me peeing on this ridiculously small toilet, due to lack of walls!!! They all (about 15 of them) stood there and watched me pee! Apparently the teachers use this bathroom all the time, but they had never seen a white woman pee before and were therefore intrigued!!! The experience still makes me cringe.. but I thought you would find it funny!
CHINESE PRIMARY AND INTERNATIONAL PRIMARY: Kathy Skelton (not being very intelligent - dunno how she got into Oxford tbh, ha) has asked me to clarify the difference between Chinese Primary classes and International Primary classes. Basically, I teach 21 sessions a week. 10 of these are Science to Years 1 , 2 and 3 - very small classes and this is what we call International. Their parents have paid alot more to have their education in both Chinese and English. They are a mixture of nationalities, mostly Korean but I have some from other countries too. The children's knowledge of English is varied, as some are near fluent having lived in English speaking countries before. However, the little ones (Year 1) speak very little English. On top of these 10 sessions I also teach 2 Kindergarten (which I will explain in the next paragraph) and 9 sessions to which we call Chinese Primary. These are all Chinese, in large classes of 45 who learn English as we would learn French in the UK. I teach them English Language. They have very little English and my lessons are mostly songs, games, vocabulary etc... such as "I have two cats", "I have a sister". etc etc... In Chinese Primary there is a very big difference in the education. They sit in rows, staring at the teacher and are expected to repeat everything I say. Their Chinese teachers there are very strict. Whereas in International, I have small classes (4, 9 and 11) and I can teach however I want.
KINDERGARTEN: I had my first few sessions of kindergarten (nursery) this week! The kids are so diddy and for the first session they all looked so scared of me. In fact, 5 of them cried!! The teacher said that they had not seen anyone like me before!!! Haha. To be fair, you see sooo many Chinese people here, and not many westerners that when I see a white person in the street or in a shop (one that I do not already know) even I am really shocked and immediately want to talk to them, but restrain myself. I can see why the Chinese are so interested in talking to me.
SUPERMARKETS: The supermarkets are amazing!! They are huge, and everything looks so weird and wonderful!! I love experimenting and picking up new foods, never sure what I am going home with!!! If I pick up buns, I am never sure on the flavour - so its a case of "wait and see". haha. It does get annoying when you buy your 3rd bottle of shampoo when what you really wanted was conditioner! lol.
LANGUAGE CONFUSION: I was beginning to think the Chinese were really racist, until someone told me that the N word, which is horrible and offensive in the UK - means the equivalent of um...... in China! The Chinese love love love to talk, and lots of them (bless em) try and talk to me. The other day, I had had a very long day at school and all I wanted to do was wait for the bus - but a man and his wife, insisted on attempting to communicate with me. They seemed fascinated by my freckles, but all I could say to them was I am an English Teacher. My Rosetta Stone CD training is going well.. but it doesn't prepare you for every day conversation. I can say loads and loads of meaningless rarely useful sentences such as "One little boy is running" , "6 small white eggs", "is he asleep?!" etc.. etc... lol.
WEATHER: The weather is getting cooler here, which is a welcome break as it had been very humid lately.
SCHOOL FOOD: My poor vegetarian friend Katie has no real options for lunch - she survives every day on a meal of rice with leek :s. bless her. We get very large meals for lunch and dinner, rice and 3 portions of different meat dishes.. all served on a metal tray. They pile on the food!!! Last week, I was beginning to think "There is nothing international about this school food" when to my delight chips were being served up!! I did get a little excited, as did many of the students as well - it all got a little crazy! lol.
Anywho, love you and see you all soon xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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