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Mine and Nicole's PT Desk Officer, David, arrived the Tuesday after the other Jiangxi volunteers had been to visit. We met him at school and went straight off to a meeting with the headteacher, vice principal, local party leader, Mrs Liu (my mentor teacher) plus Zoe and one of her colleagues from the Education Bureau. Most of it was in Chinese, but it was basically discussing how Nicole and I are doing, what the school have done to help us settle in and if there are any problems. Then we were taken to the school's onsite museum - yes, they have their own museum. And yes, it is all about the school. Exhibits include the first television ever bought for the school (bought to watch a broadcast of Mao), photographs of previous headteachers and... photos of previous foreign teachers. We were assured that a photo of Nicole and I will be added to this display very soon! After this, we went for lunch, Winston took us on a whistle-stop tour of some of Jiujiang's scenic spots and David came into school to observe Nicole and I teaching. I'd been a bit worried about the class I was having observed as they're usually pretty hard to keep quiet, but it turns out that having four official-looking people (Winston, Zoe and one of Zoe's colleagues sat in on my class too) sitting at the back of the room will do wonders for a class's behaviour, and everything went to plan. That evening, we were all taken out for a meal at the same swanky hotpot restaurant Mrs Liu once took us to - a meal significantly less alcoholic than any other Desk Officer meal, judging from conversations with David and other volunteers! This was the end of the visit: David gave us a Terry's chocolate orange (v. exciting!) and we said goodbye.
Nicole's birthday was that Saturday. She had an enormous package of food from home, which was a-mazing: maltesers, lollipops and, most importantly, McCoys salt and vinegar crisps! I'd bought her a jade bracelet from a shop near her house, and she got heaps more presents that evening at her birthday party. This birthday party was a bit of a surprise for Nicole and I. We knew that Winston was arranging something for the evening of Nicole's birthday, but all we'd been told was that people would come round to our house to meet us at 7pm. We assumed we were being taken out for a birthday meal, just because this is what usually happens, but no. Apparently we were hosting a birthday party for Nicole... although everyone had been at our house for nearly half an hour before we realised this. We spent this time waiting by the door in coats, scarves and shoes, thinking we were waiting for more people to arrive before we set off; our guests spent this time waiting by the door, wondering why we hadn't invited them to sit down. So awkward. On the plus side, there were lots of birthday presents for both me and Nicole: hats and gloves, a porcelain set, a fancy ocarina and some traditional snacks, all from Winston and other teachers. There was also a big birthday cake, so, after a tour of the house and lots of talking, we sang happy birthday to Nicole. Thankfully, things got much less awkward post-cake, just playing card games and chatting for the rest of the evening.
On Sunday afternoon we'd been invited to lunch with another teacher, via her son, who is in one of my Junior 2 classes. The son and two of his classmates came to meet us and show us the way to her apartment, which, like many teachers', is on campus. Here, we gorged ourselves on dumplings, Beijing duck pancakes and chicken drumsticks. Whilst we were eating with my students, Mrs Wang (the teacher who'd invited us) and her mother were still in the kitchen, churning out more and more food so that every time we finished one plate of food, literally three more would come out to replace it. After lunch, Mrs Wang, her husband and the students droves us to a new park at the other side of the city, Nanshan Park, to show us around. Somehow we arrived with one more teacher and student than we'd set off with, and then we went for a wander around the park. It was a grey, rainy day so the park wasn't at its best, but Mrs Wang's husband had an e-normous and very fancy camera so we still have a lot of photos from the day. For example, this blog's picture: note the awkward distance between me and Nicole, and the students. In case you couldn't guess, the photos were all the adults' idea! When we went home, one of my students gave Nicole and I a gigantic bag of fruit as a gift too - yay, free stuff! This is how I came to eat a banana for the first time I can remember. I know it seems ridiculous that I've never eaten a banana before, but I hate the smell so have always avoided them like the plague. I didn't want to be rude though, so I took the banana I was offered and it actually wasn't that bad. So yeah, that's the big news from that day - life on the edge!
The other thing that's started since I last wrote is that Nicole and I have started helping out with lessons at a different school on Saturday mornings. We were told it was a small school out in the countryside; actually, it's a brand new school with about 2000 students just on the outskirts of the city, about a half hour's drive from where we live. This school is obviously pretty wealthy, as it's absolutely immaculate and every classroom I've seen so far has interactive whiteboards, but its classrooms are the most depressing I've seen yet. They're essentially oversized grey cubicles with bare plastic panelling, no windows, plastic science benches. The classrooms at our school have an extra blackboard at the back of the room that the students decorate with elaborate chalk drawings, bright blue desk covers, plus gold slogans and flags on the walls. These classrooms don't have so much as the school rules on the walls. Anyway, the arrangement seems to be that this school will pay our school a significant amount in return for their sending out some of their best teachers to help the most able students (the "key students") when possible. Then, after their Junior 3 exams, when all students in the city can be reassigned to better or worse schools dependent on their grades, some of these students might be able to transfer to our school for Senior school. We've only helped out at this school twice, but will do so whenever we're able over the next few months: I will go with Mrs Liu at 7.30 in the morning (I have to get up at 6.30. PITY ME!), and Nicole will go with Mrs Wang at around 9am. So far, all we're expected to do is go up to the front and talk to the students for 10-20 minutes at the start of the lesson to test their listening skills. Whilst I'm not as nervous as I was doing the same thing in one of Mrs Liu's classes when we first arrived, it's still pretty hard thinking of things to say for that amount of time (I ramble quite spectacularly). Then we just sit at the back of the class for the last hour of the double-length lesson, reading or something, until it's time for us to go again. Not desperately exciting, but it is interesting being able to sit in on an English lesson. So far, all of the lessons I've seen have had strong moral and patriotic themes running through all of the teaching materials. Learning to talk about dates and years, the students use famous Chinese athletes as example, being frequently reminded to add that "China is very proud of so-and-so"; the written passages they've studied on the board have been about the importance of hard work and determination. One was about an armless piano player/champion swimmer who won China's Got Talent...?
Finally, I'll just write about some bits and pieces that have happened in the last few weeks. First up, I learnt what happens when you agree to give your phone number to any student who asks. The older students have been absolutely fine, only ever calling to invite me to watch their basketball matches, but one Saturday I was woken by recurring phonecalls from a Junior 1 called Danny. This kid kept ringing... and ringing... and ringing. I had 17 calls in the space of maybe 6 hours that day, all just saying hello, introducing himself and then giggling down the phone. Ughhh. I also had another Junior 1 call to invite me to her birthday party. She's really, really sweet - she noted down my birthday when I first arrived, and brought me a present to our lesson the week of my birthday. The next lesson I taught her class for, post-birthday invite phone-call, she gave me a little apple-shaped candle, a big box of pretty porcelain bowls from her dad and an invitation to her party folded up in an origami envelope she'd made from her jotter. Awww! Lessons-wise, I've taught "things in the classroom", "appearances", "weather" and Christmas. The classroom objects lesson was very popular because it consisted largely of a game where I'd call our objects and two students would race to bring me them on behalf of their team. There was a small misunderstanding when I did this with seniors and called out for "tissues"; the two boys competing thought I said "t-shirt" and started stripping out whilst I stood there baffled, wondering what on earth they were doing. I did catch on and stop them in time, but I don't know if I should worry about how little they questioned what they took to be a teacher asking them to undress? "Appearances" lessons went down well too: I managed to raise lots of laughs from my classes by drawing goofy faces on the board to teach them how to describe people, and had competitions where the class and I would describe wacky characters for others to draw on the board. "One big eye and one small eye", "four legs", "a very very long nose"... that sort of thing. I think I have a photo, which I'll add to my "Teaching" album for those who are interested. For my weather and Christmas lessons, Nicole's been loaning me her laptop, because mine doesn't have the right plug-thingy to connect to the school projectors. Having a powerpoint has worked wonders for my noisier classes - they've (mostly) sat beautifully quiet, chanting as directed and studiously making notes whenever I tell them to. Definitely need to invest in a cable that will allow me to use my own laptop now!
Sorry this has taken me so long to put up - I have no real excuse, I just kept getting distracted! xxxx
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