And so it begins...

Today I finally had my first lesson! I was a little suprised, to say the least, as I thought I wasn't going to start teaching until Wednesday or Thursday. Me and Zoe sauntered cooly into the office at 9 'o' clock this morning, and were suddenly told that we were both teaching a lesson this afternoon, to approximately fourty 13-14 year olds. EEK!!! PANIC!!! So much for being prepared, eh? I had to quickly ammend my lesson plan and create a powerpoint presentation with my teaching assistant, Olina. Admittedly this wasn't too difficult, as the first lesson is always meant to be quite basic - introducing yourself to the students, setting out some classroom rules, and telling the students about your country.

I felt very nervous leading up to the lesson, but as soon as the students walked in all my anxieties quickly dissipated. Olina is always by my side in the classroom to translate any difficult sentences and maintain discepline, which makes it A LOT easier. We played some games together, did a quiz about England, and sang some songs. I really enjoy myself - I hope they did! By the way, whoever told me that Chinese children are quiet and obedient, LIED!! Like any children, they are noisy and exciteable - but also great fun. Who wants boring quiet students that don't say anything after all? After the lesson, some of the girls stayed behind and asked me for my email address and took some photos of me - so cute!! Olina said my lesson went very well and that I was better than all of the previous teacher interns. Whoop whoop! What a boost to my confidence, :) My next lesson is on Thursday now and I really cannot wait. I am already thinking of new ideas to make my lessons more enjoyable for the students and feel up to the challenge.

In other news, me and Zoe met another foreigner on Saturday. His name is Henry, he is a Nigerian teacher, who has lived in Xingtai for almost three years now. It was lovely to meet another English-speaking person and have a proper conversation. He took us to a nearby restaurant and we had a yummy fish hot pot. His Chinese is a lot better than ours - so he did all the ordering, haha. Afterwards we took a taxi to a club and danced to some hip hop. Henry only lives down the road so hopefully he will become a good friend of ours whilst we are living in China - he is apparently quite a good cook....hmm, interesting!!

Zaijian for now! xx