Well let's see where to start... The seniors have been in and out of school all month because of CIE and AP exams. So this week they're supposed to be coming back to school. And when I say "supposed to" I mean, it's an option for them to come back to campus before they graduate. There are currently about 20 +/- 5 in the entire grade actually on campus. There should be over 100. So the director of our school decided the students needed a change in schedule because that would encourage students to come back to school. This whole month they've had 10 self study periods. As in, they just study on their own for their remaining AP and CIE exams. Now that most of those are done, they don't need to study. So my director called a meeting for all grade 12 teachers and students at 9am yesterday. She asked, "What do you want in your daily schedules?" The students sat there as they do so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Finally I broke the silence and said, "How about games outside?" Some of the girls perked up and said yes and some of the boys agreed alright, I guess I can get off my computer long enough to get out into the polluted air. Then we sat in silence again for about 5 (LONG) minutes and finally a students said, "Can we learn about food in the UK and US?" We agreed, we'd offer that course. Then Tim (my coworker) said, "How about dance? I can't tell you how many times I've been asked to dance by a girl that I liked and I had to say, 'Sorry I can't dance.'" So all the boys immediately jumped up and said, "YES!" REALLY?! THANKS A LOT! The girls that are already part of my dance club were like hell yea more dance with Chelsey! So that got thrown on the board. Then (and thankfully last) a student said, "How about daily life skills?" I asked, "What do you mean by that?" And the only example he could come up with was, "Like how to catch a bus." ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! WE LIVE IN A CITY AND YOU CATCH BUSES ALL THE TIME! OMG..... So Sharon was like Yea let's do that too! So our new schedule is as follows:
1-Self-study (realistically, time to wake up)
2-Outdoor activities
3-Outdoor activities
4-Daily life skills
5-Self-study (realistically, time to sleep)
6-Foods
7-Dance
This is probably the funniest schedule I've ever seen. And I'm "teaching" 3 of the periods. I mean, I'm all for having fun but these kids don't want to do these classes. It's all a front for the kids to look like they're doing something while really watching TV shows and movies in their classrooms. On the plus side, I had kids actually request to do a dance class yesterday so I taught them the Electric Slide, Cupid Shuffle, and Cha Cha Slide. They LOVED it! So now that I know they wanna learn how to dance at parties and not so much how to dance like they're getting ready to perform, I can have some fun with that. They graduating May 24th so it's only for a couple of weeks. In the next week we don't really have much going on except a couple weddings so I'll update you about those next week. Until then... Laters!
Monday, May 12, 2014
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Hawaii Crew and Suzhou!
Woah! Where did the time go?! So let's catch you bloggers up... The weekend before last (April 26th) I went to Beijing for an over night trip. I went because my dad's friend was hosting a Hawaii night. I went, ate awesome food, met amazing people, and enjoyed my time away from work. I was seriously in the best mood EVER! The Hawaii Crew was so much fun to chat with and we all enjoyed being around other Hawaii people. It made me miss home a lot more than I had been. So now I have people to visit in Beijing and for my birthday, I'm hoping to make it back for a party with my new friends :D
The next week was pretty short because we had a holiday starting Thursday. I went with three of my friends to Suzhou. But before we got to Suzhou, we had some troubles. We hopped in a cab to go to the train station. Half way there, our cab starts to smell like burning rubber. The cabby pulls over, pops the hood, and then yells something at us in Chinese. He gestures for us to get out and starts saying how much we owe him. We were like wtf?! So to get him to shut up, we paid him. He got back in his car and drove away. We had no idea where we were and the street/ally we were on/in did not have any cars driving by let alone cabs... So we go into a children's store and using broken Chinese ask if the woman can call us a cab. She does so and 16 minutes later we finally get one to come pick us up. We get to the train station with about 30 mins to get our tickets, go through security, grab lunch, and board our train. Talk about stressful! So we get to the ticket office and the woman types in the confirmation number, types in our passport numbers, and gives us three tickets. She speaks in Chinese and 10 mins later we decipher that she can't find Joanna's ticket. So we talk (again in broken Chinese) and she goes to another computer where we can't see her. Turns out I had typed in Joanna's passport number wrong when I booked the ticket so she couldn't find the reservation. She eventually found it and I had only switched two numbers by accident. So, angry and frustrated (and a little embarrassed), we finally get what we needed and go into the waiting area. We get a quick lunch and board our train. 3 hours later we arrive in Suzhou! From there it was actually not bad. We get in a cab and get a little lost. The cabby gets out of his car and asks for directions. He gets us there and we easily check in. We even got an upgrade for free! Then we grab our bags and go toward the elevators. Our room was on the 40th floor and we got into an elevator. Turns out, elevators only go to certain floors and we got into the elevator that stops at floor 35 >.< Yea terrible mistake on our part. So we FINALLY get to our hotel suite and settle in. Then we went exploring. While in Suzhou we went to Tiger Hill and a silk museum. Overall it was a really great trip and it was fun to get away from Jinan.
We got back Saturday afternoon and had to be back at work Sunday... We have wayyyy too many days in our work week this week >.< 13 to be exact... Our next day off is May 17th! The next four days are dedicated to Naviance training so that should be.... boring. The only exciting thing that's happening for a while is that we have new counselors and teachers interning so that they can prep for the new year. I'll be able to meet new people and make new friends. My seniors graduate May 24th so that's also a little exciting except for the fact that none of my students are actually at school right now. Meh. Hopefully I'll have more to update you on next week but if not, it'll be a while for my next post. Until then... Laters!
The next week was pretty short because we had a holiday starting Thursday. I went with three of my friends to Suzhou. But before we got to Suzhou, we had some troubles. We hopped in a cab to go to the train station. Half way there, our cab starts to smell like burning rubber. The cabby pulls over, pops the hood, and then yells something at us in Chinese. He gestures for us to get out and starts saying how much we owe him. We were like wtf?! So to get him to shut up, we paid him. He got back in his car and drove away. We had no idea where we were and the street/ally we were on/in did not have any cars driving by let alone cabs... So we go into a children's store and using broken Chinese ask if the woman can call us a cab. She does so and 16 minutes later we finally get one to come pick us up. We get to the train station with about 30 mins to get our tickets, go through security, grab lunch, and board our train. Talk about stressful! So we get to the ticket office and the woman types in the confirmation number, types in our passport numbers, and gives us three tickets. She speaks in Chinese and 10 mins later we decipher that she can't find Joanna's ticket. So we talk (again in broken Chinese) and she goes to another computer where we can't see her. Turns out I had typed in Joanna's passport number wrong when I booked the ticket so she couldn't find the reservation. She eventually found it and I had only switched two numbers by accident. So, angry and frustrated (and a little embarrassed), we finally get what we needed and go into the waiting area. We get a quick lunch and board our train. 3 hours later we arrive in Suzhou! From there it was actually not bad. We get in a cab and get a little lost. The cabby gets out of his car and asks for directions. He gets us there and we easily check in. We even got an upgrade for free! Then we grab our bags and go toward the elevators. Our room was on the 40th floor and we got into an elevator. Turns out, elevators only go to certain floors and we got into the elevator that stops at floor 35 >.< Yea terrible mistake on our part. So we FINALLY get to our hotel suite and settle in. Then we went exploring. While in Suzhou we went to Tiger Hill and a silk museum. Overall it was a really great trip and it was fun to get away from Jinan.
We got back Saturday afternoon and had to be back at work Sunday... We have wayyyy too many days in our work week this week >.< 13 to be exact... Our next day off is May 17th! The next four days are dedicated to Naviance training so that should be.... boring. The only exciting thing that's happening for a while is that we have new counselors and teachers interning so that they can prep for the new year. I'll be able to meet new people and make new friends. My seniors graduate May 24th so that's also a little exciting except for the fact that none of my students are actually at school right now. Meh. Hopefully I'll have more to update you on next week but if not, it'll be a while for my next post. Until then... Laters!
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Busy weekend past, busy weekend future
Hey hey bloggers! This past week was the first long week we've had in 3... count 'em... THREE weeks! So as you can imagine, I'm running off of adrenaline. So let's discuss last week. I'll admit I don't remember much from the week except for my culture class is down to four students and every now and then three show up. I receive work from a student who's traveling with her family via email but she hasn't been in class all month. This is typical of the grade 12 students. They already got the scores they need and the school will fake their transcript grades to show that they did well in their second semester of senior year. So none of them go to class. They watch movies on their iPads and play games on their phones.... ALL DAY LONG!!! Or they just don't come to class. It drives me nuts. But enough about the negative. Let's move on to the positive :D
On Tuesday or Wednesday (I forget which day) my boss's boss, the director of the school, asked me to go to a single's party on Saturday. Here's a little background for those of you who don't know Chinese culture. A girl who's single at age 27 is considered "left overs." You're past your prime, you're no longer desired, your parents (or in this case your boss) should arrange a marriage for you. It's old fashioned but the culture still exists. I'm 24 and will be 25 in a month. My boss is worried about me because I'm not finding Chinese guys to date and potentially marry. So she asked me to skip work and attend the single's party. The party was an event that the school hosted. They asked for RSVP's from all teachers and then matched numbers with townies. So for example, 60 female teachers said yes so the school found 60 males from around Jinan to participate. Mostly everyone was around 24-30. I told my boss that I didn't want to participate because 1) I don't speak Chinese and 2) I don't want to be matched up by my psychotic school. So she said, "Ok you can just be in the audience and cheer on the girls from our center. I hope they can find love." I don't think she knows what love is. Then she asks me to make signs (the kine you see at sporting events) for each of the girls. I made cheering signs and each teacher from our center who was in the audience was able to hold one for each of the girls who was participating. So basically this whole event was a game show to match up JNFLS teachers to random Jinan townies. They played a few games and if the couple won, they got matching mugs as prizes (keep in mind the couple has never met until this day). Then the women had to display a talent for the men to judge them on. Then the men had to write their number on a card and give it to a girl and if the girl liked him back, she would give her card to him. If you exchange cards, you're successfully matched and you begin your relationship after the event. Three teachers from my center were given cards but only two of them gave their cards back. My boss went ape sh*t when guys weren't choosing the girls from our center. She almost left in tears because she's genuinely worried that there will be girls who won't get married at her center. I swear this whole thing was bizarre! My boss said that if I don't have a boyfriend next year, I will be required to participate. I'm kind of afraid that she might actually fire me for not participating.
Moving on to Sunday. I PERFORMED! It was fun but also very Chinese. It was an outdoor event with no line up or schedule really. They kinda just had me stand around and then said, "You're next!" So I said, "Oh! Uh Ok!" I got a reaction out of the crowd and they seemed to love my dance. No one came up to me and talked to me after so I just left with my friends from work and a student who came to watch. We went to Melena's for dinner and had a blast celebrating Easter, 4/20, and my "successful" performance. But I think what really made the day come to a fantastic close was when my friends said, "OK let's book tickets for Labor Day Holiday!" We book our tickets for Suzhou so we're officially going! I'm so excited :D
This week is pretty chill even though it's a long week. The seniors are leaving for their senior trip on Thursday, which means no classes for me. Then Saturday I'm headed to Beijing for a party and I'll be back to work on Monday. My next holiday is May 1-3 (of course I have to work Sunday-Saturday the following week but we won't think about that just yet). It's a busy few weeks ahead of me but it should be pretty fun! I'll definitely keep you updated on all that happens as time goes on. Until then... Laters!
On Tuesday or Wednesday (I forget which day) my boss's boss, the director of the school, asked me to go to a single's party on Saturday. Here's a little background for those of you who don't know Chinese culture. A girl who's single at age 27 is considered "left overs." You're past your prime, you're no longer desired, your parents (or in this case your boss) should arrange a marriage for you. It's old fashioned but the culture still exists. I'm 24 and will be 25 in a month. My boss is worried about me because I'm not finding Chinese guys to date and potentially marry. So she asked me to skip work and attend the single's party. The party was an event that the school hosted. They asked for RSVP's from all teachers and then matched numbers with townies. So for example, 60 female teachers said yes so the school found 60 males from around Jinan to participate. Mostly everyone was around 24-30. I told my boss that I didn't want to participate because 1) I don't speak Chinese and 2) I don't want to be matched up by my psychotic school. So she said, "Ok you can just be in the audience and cheer on the girls from our center. I hope they can find love." I don't think she knows what love is. Then she asks me to make signs (the kine you see at sporting events) for each of the girls. I made cheering signs and each teacher from our center who was in the audience was able to hold one for each of the girls who was participating. So basically this whole event was a game show to match up JNFLS teachers to random Jinan townies. They played a few games and if the couple won, they got matching mugs as prizes (keep in mind the couple has never met until this day). Then the women had to display a talent for the men to judge them on. Then the men had to write their number on a card and give it to a girl and if the girl liked him back, she would give her card to him. If you exchange cards, you're successfully matched and you begin your relationship after the event. Three teachers from my center were given cards but only two of them gave their cards back. My boss went ape sh*t when guys weren't choosing the girls from our center. She almost left in tears because she's genuinely worried that there will be girls who won't get married at her center. I swear this whole thing was bizarre! My boss said that if I don't have a boyfriend next year, I will be required to participate. I'm kind of afraid that she might actually fire me for not participating.
Moving on to Sunday. I PERFORMED! It was fun but also very Chinese. It was an outdoor event with no line up or schedule really. They kinda just had me stand around and then said, "You're next!" So I said, "Oh! Uh Ok!" I got a reaction out of the crowd and they seemed to love my dance. No one came up to me and talked to me after so I just left with my friends from work and a student who came to watch. We went to Melena's for dinner and had a blast celebrating Easter, 4/20, and my "successful" performance. But I think what really made the day come to a fantastic close was when my friends said, "OK let's book tickets for Labor Day Holiday!" We book our tickets for Suzhou so we're officially going! I'm so excited :D
This week is pretty chill even though it's a long week. The seniors are leaving for their senior trip on Thursday, which means no classes for me. Then Saturday I'm headed to Beijing for a party and I'll be back to work on Monday. My next holiday is May 1-3 (of course I have to work Sunday-Saturday the following week but we won't think about that just yet). It's a busy few weeks ahead of me but it should be pretty fun! I'll definitely keep you updated on all that happens as time goes on. Until then... Laters!
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Oh. It's Thursday!
Wait... when did it become Thursday?! Oh my how time flies. Well let's see if I can get you all caught up on life in China. The last two weeks have been short weeks! Meaning we've had at least two days off each week! It's been amazing. Two Friday's ago, I had a movie night with my friends (we watched Frozen and yes, I'm obsessed with the songs now). Saturday we went out to dinner and had a great time bonding a little more on a less negative level. Then Sunday I took it easy, relaxed, worked out a little, you know... the usual :P Then the week went by. I gave my students a few lessons about the hook up culture in universities and I helped with the AP psych class since they're getting ready for their test coming up in May. My boss gave me the task of finishing the course description catalog for next year by April 30th. Again, WHY IS THAT MY JOB?! Ugh.... Anywayyyy moving on to last weekend. Last weekend was Tomb Sweeping Holiday. It's a festival type of thing where Chinese people go to their hometown or where ever it is that their ancestors are buried and they burn fake "afterlife" money. They do this so that their ancestors will have money to life off of in their afterlife.
It was kind of a neat experience to walk down the street and see all the mini bonfires of fake money on the sidewalk.
So Friday, I didn't do anything special. I just went to the gym to do my usual work out. Saturday I woke up and Skyped with my grad school adviser which was really nice. It was fun to have someone to share my experiences with and to teach her about all the differences of being a counselor in China. Then I went to Coffee Time to read a little and spend some time by myself. On my way back home I ran into the Linfield crew playing basketball and decided I could use a little exercise. We ended up playing for a few hours and headed out to dinner after that. It was an awesome day but not as awesome as Sunday. Sunday I met up with Jessie, one of my Chinese friends and colleagues. We went shopping from 12:30 to about 2:30 and then spent two hours hanging out at Coffee Time. She really wanted me to see the night lights so we found some other things to do while we killed time. We watched a wedding photo shoot in a Christian church and listen to some people singing. We had dinner and FINALLY the lights came on around 6:30. We took a ton of pictures! It was so cute how happy she was when we decided to go home. She said that she had a great day and I agreed. It was nice to spend time with a new friend and get to know her better. Fortunately that's not where my weekend ended :D Monday we had a holiday! I worked on my lesson plans and created PowerPoints and presentations, etc. It was a productive yet relaxing day.
I found out during the weekend that my friend, Michael, got hit by a motorbike while he was standing on the sidewalk waiting for one of our Chinese colleagues. His muscle is badly bruised but fortunately his bones are ok. He said the bike hit him hard enough for the rider to actually get bounced out of the seat. Then the rider scrambled to collect himself, got back on the bike, and took off. Michael said that he looked scared and we're guessing because hitting a foreigner with your motorize vehicle probably costs a hefty fine. Only in China do you have the chance of getting hit with a motorbike on a sidewalk while you're not moving. RIDICULOUS!
This week has gone by fast and I haven't really had a chance to catch my breath. Good thing tomorrow is a half day and we have two days for the weekend! I'm getting spoiled with these two day weekends. It'll be rough when we have our back to back long weeks next week. But it's ok because we have another holiday coming up May 1-4 :D I'm hoping to go to Suzhou and Hangzhou. Hopefully I can find someone to go with me! If there's anything else exciting that happens I'll be sure to keep you updated. Until then... Laters!
It was kind of a neat experience to walk down the street and see all the mini bonfires of fake money on the sidewalk.
So Friday, I didn't do anything special. I just went to the gym to do my usual work out. Saturday I woke up and Skyped with my grad school adviser which was really nice. It was fun to have someone to share my experiences with and to teach her about all the differences of being a counselor in China. Then I went to Coffee Time to read a little and spend some time by myself. On my way back home I ran into the Linfield crew playing basketball and decided I could use a little exercise. We ended up playing for a few hours and headed out to dinner after that. It was an awesome day but not as awesome as Sunday. Sunday I met up with Jessie, one of my Chinese friends and colleagues. We went shopping from 12:30 to about 2:30 and then spent two hours hanging out at Coffee Time. She really wanted me to see the night lights so we found some other things to do while we killed time. We watched a wedding photo shoot in a Christian church and listen to some people singing. We had dinner and FINALLY the lights came on around 6:30. We took a ton of pictures! It was so cute how happy she was when we decided to go home. She said that she had a great day and I agreed. It was nice to spend time with a new friend and get to know her better. Fortunately that's not where my weekend ended :D Monday we had a holiday! I worked on my lesson plans and created PowerPoints and presentations, etc. It was a productive yet relaxing day.
I found out during the weekend that my friend, Michael, got hit by a motorbike while he was standing on the sidewalk waiting for one of our Chinese colleagues. His muscle is badly bruised but fortunately his bones are ok. He said the bike hit him hard enough for the rider to actually get bounced out of the seat. Then the rider scrambled to collect himself, got back on the bike, and took off. Michael said that he looked scared and we're guessing because hitting a foreigner with your motorize vehicle probably costs a hefty fine. Only in China do you have the chance of getting hit with a motorbike on a sidewalk while you're not moving. RIDICULOUS!
This week has gone by fast and I haven't really had a chance to catch my breath. Good thing tomorrow is a half day and we have two days for the weekend! I'm getting spoiled with these two day weekends. It'll be rough when we have our back to back long weeks next week. But it's ok because we have another holiday coming up May 1-4 :D I'm hoping to go to Suzhou and Hangzhou. Hopefully I can find someone to go with me! If there's anything else exciting that happens I'll be sure to keep you updated. Until then... Laters!
Thursday, March 27, 2014
I'm surprised I'm still sane.
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Good morning Bloggers! My my, this week has been busy!
Before we get into what I’ve been up to this week, let’s take a trip back to
when I first started working here…
Back in September we were given a translated document that
stated all of the conditions under which we were medically insured. In our
contract with the school it states that we are given insurance. We were never
asked to sign any documents pertaining to our insurance (which honestly
should’ve been our first clue to the troubles we were in for). We were just
told that the document is not to be used for any other purposes except to serve
as translation. In January, one of my coworkers got sick and needed to go to
the hospital for IV antibiotics. Her husband paid out of pocket and was told
that they would be reimbursed. Our "translated document" also
confirmed that they would be reimbursed for the treatments. When we returned
from Spring Festival holiday in February, my colleagues filed an insurance
claim to get their money back. We just recently found out, within the last two
weeks, that our school JUST NOW paid the insurance company bill to cover us. So
we were without insurance for the first 7 months we were working here. And
honestly, I still haven’t signed anything so I’m not 100% sure that I’m insured
right now. So for the last week I’ve been busy helping my colleagues collect
evidence to build a case for them to get their money back. It’s been quite the
process. We’re still not sure if they’ll see their money again even though our
contract clearly states that we should have been insured. I mean seriously, my
colleagues paid equivalent to 1,000USD for the antibiotics AND got her pay cut
equivalent to 500USD because she had missed so many days of work. If the school
won’t pay her medical bills, they’re violating out contract. It’s so
frustrating to watch this happen because if it happened once, I can almost
guarantee that it’ll happen again if someone else gets sick. We’re given two
days of paid sick leave per semester and because people don’t wanna lose money
(and I don’t blame them) they come to school and teach sick. I get that you
need to be here for your students but by coming to work sick, you’re risking
all of us getting sick! Stay home and rest! Easy for me to say when I have
Juice Plus+ on my side but still.
In other news, my boss is giving me projects that are in his
job description. He has me creating course descriptions for the course catalog.
How should I know what each class is teaching?! You have all the syllabi, why
don’t you cut and paste each teacher’s course description into another document
and call it a course catalog? Oh right. Because it’s easier to transfer all
syllabi onto my thumb drive or email them to me so that I can do that and then
email it back to you, have you write notes on a hard copy that you printed off
and then give them to me to edit. WHAT?! That makes no sense… Although when you
say that you live in Jinan, Shangdon Provence on your emails, I guess it makes
sense to have someone who knows how to spell do these projects for you. Just so
everyone knows, we live in the Shandong Province, not the Shangdon Provence.
Last story, I swear. So I teach a culture class to my
students and this week I taught them about the hook up culture on college
campuses. Yes, they do exist, yes our students need to be aware of what they
may see and how to say no if they so choose. I had a talk from… an
administrator. Not quite sure what his title is but he comes into my office and
says, “Excuse me Chelsey I need to talk to you about your lessons.” I said, “Of
course. What about my lessons?” He then says, “I completely agree that our
students need to know this because it is important but maybe if you could just
avoid using the word ‘sex’ or ‘sexual intercourse’ it will be better.” I said,
“OK but that’s as technical as I can get. How would you like me to address the
action of having sex if I can’t say sex?” He suggested, “Maybe call it
‘seduction’ or ‘doing it.’” Uhhhh Ok…? Also, he said that I can’t, as in I’m
forbidden, to talk about STI’s. I asked, “But don’t you think that’s important
for them to know?” He said, “Yes of course but it’s not that present in China
so they can learn about it from their schools when they go to university.” HOLD
UP! What?! I can believe to an extent that STI’s aren’t that present in China
because their culture just isn’t as promiscuous as the US’s. But you REALLY
don’t think they need to know about STI’s before gong to university in the
states?! Really?! Chinese education doesn’t teach sex ed correctly. They teach
it definitely but they’re taught everything wrong… For example they are taught
that using multiple condoms (not just two but more than two) is more effective
than using just one. “The more you use, the more protected you are.” Ummmm no.
FALSE! WTH Chinese government?! I’m genuinely worried about my students in the
states. I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope they use common sense and learn quickly!
Ok that’s it for now. I’ll be sure to update you next week.
There are some crazy things happening this weekend and next week so I’ll probably
be writing a lot more. Until then… Laters!
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Consistency=no blog post
Hey hey bloggers! As my title states... consistency=no blog post. At least for last week. There really wasn't anything exciting that happened two weeks ago but I did have an opportunity to practice my Chinese this weekend :D So here's what happened:
I've been going to the gym almost every night for the last two weeks. I've picked up a bunch of dance and yoga words in Chinese. I'm getting pretty good at dancing with Chinese commands telling me what to do. Then on Wednesday a student asked me to help with Community Day. I said yes and he asked me to teach people a dance. Then he asked me if I needed a translator because we'll be in the community, not at school. I decided I didn't want a translator so I worked on my vocab for teaching a dance class in Chinese. Well of course I had no idea who would be in my dance class. It could've been teenagers, kids, adults, elderly folks.... Anyone really. So Saturday morning I get dressed, get picked up by a student's parent, and off we went to do our volunteer work. The whole time we were there was supposed to be awareness spreading. We handed out reusable bags with our school's logo on them, metal chopsticks, and spoons. Community day (according to one of our admins) has two purposes: 1. to help our community and 2. get the students out of their comfort zones to become more productive members of society. Well I think with my dance class, they were definitely out of their comfort zones. Dance isn't really a common pass time here. Music, sure. Studying, of course! Dance... not so much... unless it's tradition Chinese dance. So dance for the sake of dance is hard to convince people to do. Anyway, we get to our site and I see what I'm working with. Mostly there are grandparents, parents, and 2 year olds running around. So with my school's students, I had a nice mix of ages. I taught them a dance to Jack Johnson's The Three R's and they seemed to all love it. I proudly shouted commands in Chinese and even spoke with some of the kids. Apparently I have the vocabulary of a 2 year old because I could hold conversations with them no problem! There was one little boy who wouldn't leave my side. He kept dancing to the music I was playing.... SO ADORABLE!!!!! It made me miss my cousins' kids so much.
Anyway, so that's the story of the week :) I got to use my Chinese, the weather here is warm and sunny with minimal pollution, which makes everyone in such a better mood than I've ever seen them, and today is St. Patrick's day so I'm allowing myself a piece of chocolate cake from the Irish Pub in town. I'm pretty excited for it :P Hopefully more excitement will happen throughout the next few days so that I have something to share with you all. But hey, if my schedule remains consistent, I'm not gonna complain. Even if that means having nothing to write about. Keep your fingers crossed for the weather to hold this nice! Until then... Laters!
I've been going to the gym almost every night for the last two weeks. I've picked up a bunch of dance and yoga words in Chinese. I'm getting pretty good at dancing with Chinese commands telling me what to do. Then on Wednesday a student asked me to help with Community Day. I said yes and he asked me to teach people a dance. Then he asked me if I needed a translator because we'll be in the community, not at school. I decided I didn't want a translator so I worked on my vocab for teaching a dance class in Chinese. Well of course I had no idea who would be in my dance class. It could've been teenagers, kids, adults, elderly folks.... Anyone really. So Saturday morning I get dressed, get picked up by a student's parent, and off we went to do our volunteer work. The whole time we were there was supposed to be awareness spreading. We handed out reusable bags with our school's logo on them, metal chopsticks, and spoons. Community day (according to one of our admins) has two purposes: 1. to help our community and 2. get the students out of their comfort zones to become more productive members of society. Well I think with my dance class, they were definitely out of their comfort zones. Dance isn't really a common pass time here. Music, sure. Studying, of course! Dance... not so much... unless it's tradition Chinese dance. So dance for the sake of dance is hard to convince people to do. Anyway, we get to our site and I see what I'm working with. Mostly there are grandparents, parents, and 2 year olds running around. So with my school's students, I had a nice mix of ages. I taught them a dance to Jack Johnson's The Three R's and they seemed to all love it. I proudly shouted commands in Chinese and even spoke with some of the kids. Apparently I have the vocabulary of a 2 year old because I could hold conversations with them no problem! There was one little boy who wouldn't leave my side. He kept dancing to the music I was playing.... SO ADORABLE!!!!! It made me miss my cousins' kids so much.
Anyway, so that's the story of the week :) I got to use my Chinese, the weather here is warm and sunny with minimal pollution, which makes everyone in such a better mood than I've ever seen them, and today is St. Patrick's day so I'm allowing myself a piece of chocolate cake from the Irish Pub in town. I'm pretty excited for it :P Hopefully more excitement will happen throughout the next few days so that I have something to share with you all. But hey, if my schedule remains consistent, I'm not gonna complain. Even if that means having nothing to write about. Keep your fingers crossed for the weather to hold this nice! Until then... Laters!
Sunday, March 2, 2014
IT'S MARCH!!!!
Hey hey everyone! Sorry I didn't update last week but life at work has gotten pretty hectic. I now have three of my very own classes (last semester if you recall, I only had a handful of classes that I co-taught with Giles). Well it's the same class but it meets three times a week. This class is something I'm actually knowledgeable about. I'm teaching 30+ AP and A level students about university culture. I started out with 35 students. Then about 15 students added my class. But after taking the first two weeks of classes and realizing that I'm ridiculous when it comes to teaching this course, they all got scared and about 10 dropped. I told them that I was going to simulate a college course... that includes pacing and talking to them as if they understand what I'm talking about unless they specifically say, "I'm confused, can you please explain that a different way." These students aren't ready for college (let alone college in a foreign country with a foreign language) and the ones who dropped told me they were dropped because I wasn't making the class fun enough. I asked them, "Well, what do you expect from a college class?" And their reply was, "I'm not in college yet. High school is not supposed to be this hard." How did these students get through three years of high school with this mindset?! It makes me so frustrated that they expect me to prepare them for college and then at the slightest bit of difficulty, they run away. But as my coworker always tells me, "It's all about our numbers. That's what gets the tuition coming in." And unfortunately, that's true. This school makes their classes really easy so that their students' grades are really high and therefore more parents buy into the fact that they're paying equivalent to $12,000 a year for their child to get a "great" education. Every single student gets an 85% or higher regardless of their actual score in the class. As long as the students get the test score they want and the grades that get them into a foreign university, they don't care how they get it. For every student that dropped my class I remind them that they requested this class last semester, "You asked for a culture class and now you don't want to take it." Their response usually revolves around, "You aren't teaching us what we need to know to survive in university. We need to learn how to get a driver's license and get around our campus." Yea... That's not culture class... That's "how do I become a citizen" class. I'm sorry if that's what you think will help you "survive" in college but I'm not going to worry about that because in order to stay at university, you need to learn how to do different types of work. YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY DO WORK!!!!! There are some kids here who say, "Well my parents have money so I don't have to worry about the college kicking me out because they want my money." Ok while for some schools, that may be true, it isn't for the schools that they're all hoping for: Harvard, Yale, NYU... These aren't schools that will keep you there just because you have money... Maybe University of Nowheresville will do that because no one actually wants to attend that university! Ugh! These students have been brainwashed to think that they're set for life and I'm doing my best not to crush their spirits but honestly, they won't survive in a foreign country. They're all going to come home crying because they can't handle the pressures of university.
So that's what I was dealing with all last week. Basically just defending my class to my administration. These kids need this class! Luckily they agree but it's still a headache to deal with these backward thinking students. So fast forward to this weekend... Friday I went with some of my favorite Chinese friends to a coffee bar and we just hung out reading and relaxing. I love their little place but it's still not my favorite. It can become my favorite to go with them but to go by myself... I have another place for that ;) I also went to a gym and signed up for dance classes on Friday. I am now taking yoga, jazz, ballet, and belly dance classes. Of course all these classes are taught in Chinese so if nothing else, I'll learn some new dance terminology in Chinese. The membership for the gym is only 650元 (about $100) for a year) and classes are free to all members of the gym. Such a sweet deal! Saturday I woke up in pain from my dance classes on Friday and decided I needed to go to MY cafe. There's this tiny little coffee shop down a very busy road in town called Truth Cafe. Christine showed it to me and now I want to go every chance I get! There are 4 cats that have full reign of the place and their tea is amazing! I went on Saturday from about 10:30am to about 2:30pm. Like I said, it's my favorite cafe to go by myself. I can just sit with the cats, read, and drink tea for hours! Christine came for a little while to talk with me and just get out of the apartments. Then she left and I left a few hours after her. I went to the gym again Saturday night. Sunday I took it easy. I slept in, read some more and then went to lunch. I met up with Michael and Christine and we decided we needed to go to a movie. Last weekend Frozen was in theaters but here in Jinan, the movies that are available in English changes almost from weekend to weekend. So we ended up not being able to see any movies. Instead we went to Papa Johns and indulged in a bit of pizza. Didn't taste like American pizza but it satisfied my cheese craving.
Now I'm back at work yet again for another long week. I think my Chinese friends might want to go back to their coffee bar on Saturday once we leave work. I love that they invite me to things now :) Even if I can't understand everything they say they still like having me in their company, which is an amazing compliment! One day... one day I will be able to understand them and even participate in their conversations! I just have to study a little bit harder. There is so much I want to do every day (learn Chinese, work out, read for fun) but there are only so many hours in a day :/ I guess I have to prioritize. Oh well. Everything in its own time, right? I'll be sure to update you on how crazy life gets this week... Long story short, my boss is on the defensive because all foreign teachers are now providing documentation that he outright lied about some stuff that happened. He told us that he didn't need some stuff but when his boss came down hard on him he said, "I told my employees and they failed to give it to me." So his boss came down hard on us and we provided emails where he said, "I do not require your documents... blah blah blah." So now he's making our lives hell for not having his back in his time in need. But he hasn't had our backs all year so what makes him think we'd have his?! Just because we're all expats? Think again Mr. Hostile Work Environment. Seriously, if my coworkers hadn't shared this article about our boss with me, I would've defended him. But since he's done this in the past, I have no sympathy for him. He should've learned. Whatever... life goes on! Speaking of going on, I have to get back to work. Update again next week. Until then... Laters!
So that's what I was dealing with all last week. Basically just defending my class to my administration. These kids need this class! Luckily they agree but it's still a headache to deal with these backward thinking students. So fast forward to this weekend... Friday I went with some of my favorite Chinese friends to a coffee bar and we just hung out reading and relaxing. I love their little place but it's still not my favorite. It can become my favorite to go with them but to go by myself... I have another place for that ;) I also went to a gym and signed up for dance classes on Friday. I am now taking yoga, jazz, ballet, and belly dance classes. Of course all these classes are taught in Chinese so if nothing else, I'll learn some new dance terminology in Chinese. The membership for the gym is only 650元 (about $100) for a year) and classes are free to all members of the gym. Such a sweet deal! Saturday I woke up in pain from my dance classes on Friday and decided I needed to go to MY cafe. There's this tiny little coffee shop down a very busy road in town called Truth Cafe. Christine showed it to me and now I want to go every chance I get! There are 4 cats that have full reign of the place and their tea is amazing! I went on Saturday from about 10:30am to about 2:30pm. Like I said, it's my favorite cafe to go by myself. I can just sit with the cats, read, and drink tea for hours! Christine came for a little while to talk with me and just get out of the apartments. Then she left and I left a few hours after her. I went to the gym again Saturday night. Sunday I took it easy. I slept in, read some more and then went to lunch. I met up with Michael and Christine and we decided we needed to go to a movie. Last weekend Frozen was in theaters but here in Jinan, the movies that are available in English changes almost from weekend to weekend. So we ended up not being able to see any movies. Instead we went to Papa Johns and indulged in a bit of pizza. Didn't taste like American pizza but it satisfied my cheese craving.
Now I'm back at work yet again for another long week. I think my Chinese friends might want to go back to their coffee bar on Saturday once we leave work. I love that they invite me to things now :) Even if I can't understand everything they say they still like having me in their company, which is an amazing compliment! One day... one day I will be able to understand them and even participate in their conversations! I just have to study a little bit harder. There is so much I want to do every day (learn Chinese, work out, read for fun) but there are only so many hours in a day :/ I guess I have to prioritize. Oh well. Everything in its own time, right? I'll be sure to update you on how crazy life gets this week... Long story short, my boss is on the defensive because all foreign teachers are now providing documentation that he outright lied about some stuff that happened. He told us that he didn't need some stuff but when his boss came down hard on him he said, "I told my employees and they failed to give it to me." So his boss came down hard on us and we provided emails where he said, "I do not require your documents... blah blah blah." So now he's making our lives hell for not having his back in his time in need. But he hasn't had our backs all year so what makes him think we'd have his?! Just because we're all expats? Think again Mr. Hostile Work Environment. Seriously, if my coworkers hadn't shared this article about our boss with me, I would've defended him. But since he's done this in the past, I have no sympathy for him. He should've learned. Whatever... life goes on! Speaking of going on, I have to get back to work. Update again next week. Until then... Laters!
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