I know it has been a few days, but not much happened until this weekend. (I only taught 2 classes - each class being 2 hours in length). On Saturday, I decided to go to Qingdao so I could go to church (as I found out, foreigners aren't allowed to worship with locals). Qingdao is a little bigger than Weifang I have been told. They only have about 8 million people. Yeah. I know what you are thinking, you want to see pictures. But my eyes were huge with all the sights around me and my hands were white from gripping the car as the taxi speed through Qingdao. I wasn't about to losen my death grip to take pictures. Let's just say people and drivers in China have to have more than 9 lives to be able to survive here. (Some time when I can losen my death grip and be able to take pictures, then you'll understand). In Qingdao I met this fun older lady (she reminds me a lot of my grandma and her sister) and she took me shopping. She helped me know what is good to eat and where the good sanitized food can be found (I really don't want to visit a hospital by getting sick here). It was really quite fun. We went into a DVD shop to buy DVDs (they are all pirated bythe way), when they see that you are a foreigner, they lead you to the back and open up the wall. Through the wall is another room with English DVDs to buy. I got a few more (they only me cost me about $1 each), so I don't have to watch the same one I've had all week. I've watched it over and over and over and just about have it memorized! Yep, it's pretty exciting here. Haha. The train was fun to ride too. It is a CHR train and is the fastest one in China. On the ride, we would top over 200 km/hr (130 mph).
I know you were worried about me teaching only 4 hrs last week, but I received a new schedule. I will be teaching 7 classes and they are all Mon, Tues, & Wed. One of the days I teach until 8pm at night, but I don't mind knowing I have the next 4 days off. I can handle that! :) The students are really very nice. I teach 4 freshmen classes and 3 sophmore classes. The class sizes are around 37. But I did teach a class today that had about 70 students in it. They were packed in like sardines! It will be a challenge to find out how to teach them (Chinese students aren't ones to volunteer and get very shy when called on). I'll see what I can figure out for next week. The classrooms are similiar to what you would find in the 1950's. They have desks similar to what we used in Elementary school (where you could store your books), chalkboard to write on, and some classrooms are even lucky enough to have a TV (no DVD player). So much for my knowledge of computers and powerpoints. haha. The kids are lots of fun and they love playing games. We played pictionary regarding the modes of transportation and it was a riot! I also learned a lot about them. Only about 7 of my 140 students have ever been on an airplane, around 45 have been on a train, and maybe 20 have ridden in a car other than a taxi (some have never even been in a taxi!). It really surprised me how little many of them have. They all are so fun and willing to help. Very, very nice people.
Tonight I was invited to attend a wedding party (those are what the pictures are of). The bride and groom were married just before the Chinese New Year and in China, they usually have the wedding party a few days or weeks later. Attached are pictures from the wedding party (or dinner). The main idea of a wedding party is to great the new couple and then eat and drink and celebrate their occasion! The bride wears red after the ceremony. (She only wears white before the ceremony.) The bride and groom were introduced to the party before going to each table for a toast and then they left and I didn't see them again. Both of them are teachers at the college where I teach so that is how I got invited. I sat with a group of English teachers from the Foreign Language Department (at least I could understand some things when they spoke in English). If you will notice, there is a big lazy-susan type of thing in the middle of the table. That is where all the food goes. You use your chopsticks to grap food and eat right from those plates. They continued to bring food out until the plates of food were stacked 3 or 4 high on the table. There was tons of food! I must say the food was very good. Some of which is only served at weddings. It was really interesting and good.
No comments:
Post a Comment