Paparazzi

Here I am updating my blog once again. It was another crazy long day. I woke up at 6:30 and taught class at 8 a.m. The morning class was on the first floor of one of the buildings and the windows were wide open like usual. This morning there were people with pick axes and weed whackers working right outside the window, so I had to shout. I have helped most of my students find English names, but some already had some really awesome names: Lemon, T-Mac, Birds, Smile, Heaven, etc.

I had another new class this afternoon, so I got to meet students numbers 100-150. Tomorrow I have yet another class of 50 people to meet for the first time. The classes were pretty good. The students don't have very good English but they seem eager to learn and are respectful. When I was monitoring the room today as they worked on an assignment, I looked around the classroom at the brown streaked walls, concrete floors, the students bent over their papers, and the Chinese flag over the chalkboard. I felt very at peace and strangely like I was at home there.

After my afternoon class was finished at 4:30, several of my teammates and I trekked over to an open pavilion on campus to help conduct "English corner." It was an absolute mob scene. We could see literally hundreds of students standing expectantly for our arrival and they could see us coming. I felt like a celebrity. Actually more like an alien. The students immediately converged upon us. A group of 35 people circled around me peppering me with questions. My more exotic teammates, like the 6 foot tall guy was encircled by 50 eager male students. We stood in the hot sunshine without any air circulation answering questions and trying to conduct conversations. It was mostly a photo-taking opportunity for them. That lasted for 45 minutes.

We finally got back home and we went to a Muslim noodle shop out the back gate. The temperature outside was 90 and we were eating steaming noodles in a tiny steam-filled shop. There was a television and everyone in the shop was watching the live launching of some Chinese astronauts. The Chinese are rightfully very proud of their country.

Agh, I think that's all for today's update! Someday I'll try to steal some of my teammates' pictures to post. I will be teaching tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday. Then perhaps I will have a minute to rest. Thank you for your thoughts! I'm working on being a good teacher and loving my students well. I think it will become easier and more natural as time progresses.