A China Story Begins...

I have been in China for around 3 weeks now, and I must say it is cooler than I could have ever expected. Granted, I was assuming the worse (the whole hope for the best, expect the worse mind set). I have my own apartment outfitted with 2 bedrooms, a cafeteria card that satisfies my appetite, and endless opportunities to explore and walk around because I live in the best area of Xiamen (for real!).

As for classes, it is amazing how many kids they manage to have filter past me. I teach 16 different classes a week J1 has 11-12 year olds and J2 has 13-15 year olds. Each week I teach 1/2 of those 16 different classes, and the next week I switch and teach the other 1/2 of students. So according to my calculations that is 27 kids/class * 16 classes/week * 2 (teaching both of the halves of the 16 classes)= 864 kids! Needless to say I am having trouble remembering students names. The ones that stuck out the most were: Tracy McGrady, Zero, Cancer, Dragon, Sky, Fly and Calensar (I have no idea how to pronounce it, one day she came up to me and said it super slowly and I still can't do it!). Surprisingly the most popular are: Bob, Bill, Mike, Sherry, Cherry, Nancy, and Shirley.

I actually really do like teaching. The past 2 weeks I have been playing games the whole class, which sometimes get out of hand. Finally one day I threatened the kids and said "if you don't stop fooling around we can write papers and I will grade them, because I control your grade," I felt like a crazy person forcing them to have fun, it seemed to work, but little do they know the last thing I really want to do is grade EVERYONE's paper. Other than that the students are pretty obedient, if I write things on the board I can have everyone stand up and read what I wrote, and no one will sit down until I tell them it is ok.

Fun/interesting things the students do:
1. Showing respect for teachers: Students will zoom by you in the halls running to and fro, but they are required to nod their heads at teachers and say "hi teacher" in Chinese.
2. Eye Exercises: A set time twice a day when calming music plays over the PA system with a woman saying commands in Chinese. The students rub their eyes, temples, etc. and every so often other students monitor the class to make sure everyone is doing the exercise.
3. Exercise Time: In the morning all students gather on the field and partake in a choreographed dance. I tried to hide in the bushes and watch, but I decided the kids might get freaked out, so I stopped.
4. The bell: In place of the obnoxious bell sound, class is over when classical music blasts for 5 seconds. The kind of classical music I think would have been played at old bourgeoisie parties.

Besides teaching I have been touring Xiamen and surrounding areas with my penpal Sam from Kansas. We met when we were both going through the craziness of trying to get a work permit. We have done a pretty good job of seeing the city. He lives 2 floors above me so it is pretty cool to have a friend to share experiences with. We went to Gulangyu island which is about 30 mins away, and frequently hang out at the "lake" (really a river) that is right next to our school.

Today was clear blue skies! It was amazing. So far China has been better than I could have ever imagined.