Busy C is back!

Ok so last week was a bit crazy... but not nearly as crazy as this week will be. We were told that we had two short weeks in a row due to the market on Nov 30. But on Friday the principal of the mainstream school changed it! So now we're on a long week. It's even worse when you consider that this week is Thanksgiving. The International Center is having all the foreign teachers prepare, not one, but TWO Thanksgiving dinners! And they're not even really dinners! We're starting the prep work at 1 and eating at 3... Then we leave work around 5ish, which means that we’ll get home around 6:30 with traffic. LAME!!!!! But before I get too ahead of myself, let’s review what happened last week.

Monday-Wednesday was pretty much the same as always. I had a few classes, a few meetings, and was put in charge of doing decorations for the two Thanksgiving dinners. I started working on them last week and this week I will be incredibly busy with them.

Then on Thursday during our grade 12 meeting I was told that I needed to focus more on practicing writing than teaching grammar. I asked, “So you want me to give them writing assignments, give them feedback, and then have them do it all over again, WITHOUT teaching them grammar?” My admin says, “Yes. They’ve had grammar lessons since they were in primary school so they find it boring.” Ok I get that grammar is boring… Hell, I’m a native speaker and I hate grammar… but if they’re making the same mistakes over and over again and they’re ALL making the SAME mistakes, then we need to go over it as a lesson. I can’t just give them the same feedback over and over again! That’s so stupid. Not to mention that my admin keeps taking classes away from me so now I’m down to one lesson a week per class. Really?! You expect me to give them feedback one week and do another writing assignment another week?! Nooooooo that’s not happening. So to compromise, I said, “I will do what you are asking me to do IF I can have another lesson per class each week.” I got what I wanted. I now see each class that I teach twice for my own lessons and Giles asked if I could help with his speaking classes as well. So really I see each class 4 times a week :D My admin was pissed that I took on more classes… Really?! I’m only in the classroom for 10 lessons each week on a long week and 8 lessons on a short week. That’s the amount of class time I’m required to be in the classroom on my contract so why is this a problem?! I don’t get it.

Friday was a half day. Most of my floor went out of town so I hung out with people in the other foreign teachers building. Eric, Robert, Hannah, and I went to Yosmite—a bar near Shandong Normal University where all the uni students go. I’ve never seen so many foreigners in one place! It felt like a frat party that turned into a Falstaffs party… If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you didn’t go to Skidmore and you, my friend, are missing out on life :P I danced my little heart out and had an amazing time! Eric’s coat was stolen at Yosmite though :/ His keys were in it so he ended up having to crash on my couch. He later had to brake into his own apartment with a credit card to get his spare key.

Saturday I hung out with some new (Chinese) friends. We went to see Hunger Games 2 (AMAZING!!!!!!!) in English. The movie going experience is so different in China! Everyone is funneled into the theater by ushers at every door and corner of the hallway, the seats are assigned, the leg room is enormous… the list goes on. It was awesome to experience. Then we went to dinner at Ajise Ramen… YUMMMMMM! We ended up staying there for a few hours. Jeremiah pointed out that it must look strange that people who look Chinese would be speaking to each other in English. I get that a lot here. My friends all need to explain that I’m American and don’t speak much Chinese. I’m working on it though! Then we went to a place on Furong Jie that felt a lot like a western café. We ended up staying there drinking tea and talking for another few hours. I swear, everything in China happens at different speeds. If you’re at work, everything moves ridiculously fast—the teachers eat and go back to work within 15 minutes! Then when you’re out, you spend 6 hours just hanging out at a restaurant! Regardless, it was such a great night.

Sunday I met a new student from the mainstream school who wants to practice her English with me. I met with her again yesterday (Monday) so that I could introduce her to a few foreign teachers. She was SOOOO happy that she was able to meet so many foreigners. She doesn’t have many classes left this year because she’s already accepted into her top choice university, Shandong Economics University.  Schooling here is so weird. You don’t need to attend class once you get the examination score you want/need. So that’s all school is used for, to pass exams. I even have some students who are taking the SAT next weekend even though they’re already accepted at US universities. I asked why they’re taking their test again and they reply with, “My score isn’t good enough.” BUT YOU’RE ALREADY ACCEPTED! I don’t understand. So bizarre.

This week… Oh my goodness! I’m swamped with decoration craziness. I love that I get to play with arts and crafts supplies all week but man it’s exhausting. I have two students helping me and they’re loving it but there’s just wayyyyyyy too much to do between now and Friday. On Friday we’re having “linner” with the grade 12s and on Saturday we’re having “linner” with the faculty. We’re supposed to teach them about Thanksgiving but no one wants to give up their free time so everyone is dreading going to this thing. It just sucks that our weeks change from week to week so it’s impossible to make plans with friends more than a couple days in advance. Especially hard for those of my coworkers who need to make doctors appointments or plans to have someone translate for them at the bank etc. It just feels impossible to do anything that isn’t work related. Fortunately for me, I don’t really have that problem. The only problem I have is being too exhausted from working 6 days a week to enjoy my day off when I have it! Alright, I think I procrastinated enough now. I have to go back to making tissue paper turkeys. I’ll let you know how this week pans out! Until then… Laters.